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Ask PG: Do you ever get overwhelmed?

93 points| clicks | 13 years ago | reply

I just saw the story "Y Combinator-Backed Zenefits Gives Small Businesses A One-Stop Shop For Finding And Managing Employee Benefits" on Techcrunch, and was quickly reminded how difficult I found my short stint in that line of work to be (office side of managing employee benefits). YC is investing in such an incredibly large variety of startups, and getting into many different big industries. I can barely imagine the kind of work it must be to research everything so you can make good decisions

Between maintaining HN, being a VC who many founders look up to for advice, etc., doesn't it ever get a little too much? If yes, what do you do to keep your composure?

24 comments

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[+] pg|13 years ago|reply
There are around 20 people working full or part time for YC now, including 5 of us doing what I used to do alone in the old days. There are 47 startups in the current batch, which works out to less than 10 apiece. So things are actually pretty easy right now.

Last night's server troubles took more out of me than anything I've had to deal with in YC proper.

[+] benhamner|13 years ago|reply
A different way to frame the question: "what keeps you up at night?" (beyond the very uncommon event of HN being down)

Massive quantity of emails? YC startups that aren't the rare runaway success? YC startups that are the rare runaway success? Meta issues around YC? Something unrelated to YC? Pressure to live up to the pg legend irl? Not being disciplined about avoiding overworking? Something in your private life that's not appropriate to share? Anything?

[+] simonholroyd|13 years ago|reply
It's interesting that you'd say the downtime was relatively overwhelming. From an outsider's view HN seems like it must be a relatively low stress site to maintain. If it goes down, YC suffers very little. Its community views the site as a public service. If anything, a few hours or even days of downtime just serves to remind the community how valued that service is (and by extension how positive our feelings towards YC are).

Is there a hidden downside to the downtime I'm missing? Worried it brings into question YC's technical chops?

[+] brudgers|13 years ago|reply
Your hard work is appreciated. Thanks.
[+] clicks|13 years ago|reply
Thanks for responding!
[+] mehulkar|13 years ago|reply
I watched an interview with the Reddit founders and at a couple points they were close to tears overwhelmed with the kind of community they had helped enable. When I first saw this Ask PG, I thought that's the kind of "overwhelm" the OP was asking about. This forum alone and the number of people it touches would be enough to overwhelm me from time to time.
[+] DigitalSea|13 years ago|reply
PG isn't alone. YC do have staff, so it's not a one-man operation. If PG were running everything by himself then yes, he probably would be overwhelmed but there are a lot of people PG can call upon to help him out.
[+] dschiptsov|13 years ago|reply
btw, there is a mood, like so-called flow, when you just do it, just as best as you can, without even worrying of anything. It is like surfing - you just keeping your balance and going with a wave.

Being overwhelmed is a side-effect of fears, doubts and ignorance - what they call insecurity. As long as one tames them, uninterfered awareness is what remains.

It is like a performance of professional musician or painter - you just do it out of habit.

Just doing with relaxed mind is also called Zen.)