People get paid for writing books. I don't think that is too outrageous. People write books in how to get into school, get a job, start a business etc.
1) if you really could optimize for acceptance you would to some extent be defeating their process. It is in the ballpark of white hat/black hat seo... sure that could ultimately be untrue if during the course of following advice you actually just made a better company but ... at that point the title is misleading, which leads us to ...
2) Very predatory on people’s dreams of success. There are many products out there that are priced very high, and basically are targeted towards people who can’t really take advantage of the advice. I think the ethics surrounding that are questionable at best.
His point is that if you are smart and have a good product, you don't need this book. If you aren't either of those things, Y Combinator doesn't want you and this book is helping you cheat.
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[ 475 ms ] story [ 738 ms ] threadSleazy. Charge people $50 to get “advice” on how to get into YCombinator.
No. Just. No.
2) Very predatory on people’s dreams of success. There are many products out there that are priced very high, and basically are targeted towards people who can’t really take advantage of the advice. I think the ethics surrounding that are questionable at best.
Paul Graham's advice is worth far more, he's a YC founder, and it's entirely free: http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html