Comment by keeptrying | Hacker News Reader

Comment by keeptrying | Hacker News Reader

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Actually most IIT-ians are amazingly persistent in a way that, I think, overshadows their "genius". It takes a heckuva lot of studying to get through that test. Years and years of studying. To be able to do that you have to be amazingly persistent.

That kind of dogged persistence helps when doing a startup.

The IIT-ian you need to watch out for is the one that keeps reminding you that he's from IIT. This kind of guy has usually not done anything else with his life.

Sridhar Vembu of Zoho went to IIT-Madras. He aint doing too bad!

So IIT helps but you certainly dont have to be an IIT-ian to succeed. Some day I hope to prove that :P ...

The only negative "opinion" that I have about IIT-ians (from the ones that I have met) is that they are very good at solving clearly defined problems but they have a hard time defining the problem itself. Ie they have a hard time figuring what the problem is in the first place. If you can give them the problem, clearly defined, they will solve it for you.

(Again this could just be my prejudice :) ...

You should look up Sridhar Vembu's posts on anti-credentialism. In fact he prefers hiring kids out of highschool and teaching them programming rather than hiring engineers (let alone engineers from the IIT).

I love the IITs. Of the 5 enlightened professors I met in India, 3 were at an IIT. I had some of my best times at events at IITs. But using those as a filter is stupid and as you point out, in the case of those who brag about having gone to an IIT, its invariably counterproductive in my experience.

Thats only because he cant afford IIT-ians.

Seriously if theres one credential which you ever do respect its IIT (pre-2000) graduated. At one point of time they were either very very bright or very very hardworking. Of course this might have changed in the years after graduating from IIT.

(Note: After 2000, they rebranded a lot of the state level colleges to "IIT" status.)

There's a huge difference between respecting credentials and filtering based on them. The former is not binary. I am simply arguing that an IIT degree is neither necessary nor sufficient to be a successful entrepreneur.

Absolutely.

Now you sound sensible, unlike your previous comment. Good for you. You have been to Gatech, so for sure you know how profs each year plan to catch new IITians to work in their groups. But your personal ego has forced you not admit this. I cannot help you with this.

Discloser: I have been to Gatech.

Guys like you with "iit" in their handles are the ones that people should think twice about.

One of Sridhar's articles about the placebo effect of college education

http://blogs.adventnet.com/svembu/2005/11/03/college-educati...

Indeed this is your prejudice. Just search for top researchers in USA in field of CS. You will find almost all the Indians that appear in that list are IITians. I hope that will clear your misconception, "they have a hard time defining the problem itself".

Competence is not fungible.

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