Feels like all the top people in EA would have gotten into EA anyway?
Possibly you donât endorse this statement and were just using it as an intro, but I think your interlocutorâs response (1) is understated: I canât think of any products which donât benefit from having a marketing department. If EA doesnât benefit from marketing (broadly defined), it would be an exceptionally unusual product.
I imagine taking my best guess at the âcurrent plan of meta-EAâ and giving it to Paul Graham and him not funding my startup because the plan isnât specific/âconcrete enough to even check if itâs good and this vagueness is a sign that the key assumptions that need to be true for the plan to even work havenât been identified.
For what itâs worth, CEAâs plans seem more concrete than mine were when I interviewed at YC. CLRâs thoughts on creating disruptive research teams are another thing which comes to mind as having key assumptions which could be falsified.
Thanks for sharing this!
Possibly you donât endorse this statement and were just using it as an intro, but I think your interlocutorâs response (1) is understated: I canât think of any products which donât benefit from having a marketing department. If EA doesnât benefit from marketing (broadly defined), it would be an exceptionally unusual product.
For what itâs worth, CEAâs plans seem more concrete than mine were when I interviewed at YC. CLRâs thoughts on creating disruptive research teams are another thing which comes to mind as having key assumptions which could be falsified.
Also seems relevant that both 80k and CEA went through YC (though I didnât work for 80k back then and donât know all the details).
Good point