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Some of the advice YC partners give seems harmful because of survivorship bias (Basic for the Altair -> Microsoft). I've seen some people criticise you for it, but I've never seen any of you address it directly. Do you mind doing so now?

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Most startups don't work--everyone understands the odds are long. What makes it worth it is that when they work, they really, really work. So we try to give advice about how to maybe become a huge company.

I understand your motivation. My point is that your advice on how to become a huge company seems a bit flawed - specifically because it ignores all the companies which failed even after following that advice.

Anyway, there is so little data on the topic that I don't feel anyone has good advice on it.

He didn't say it was advice on how to become a huge company, he said it was how to _maybe_ become a huge company. They're going for high returns on successes, not high chance of success.

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