Ludicast, go home, you're drunk.

But for real, what is this? Redeem yourself.

:)

Not sure why it isn't clear and/or was downvoted "to Bolivia". I'm right now in Queens with wife/baby/spoiled-food/no-heat/no-power at home so don't give me that "too soon to joke" crap :).

The video is a funny scene from a classic movie about a fringe culture. Arnold is playing with Lou Ferrigno's confidence.

Arnold says that they should have extended the Mr. Olympia contest (the deadline) because Lou (the competing startup) still needs to get in shape. Arnold then pours more salt on the wound by saying that on second thought Lou would still lose because Arnold (the venture-backed, TC-covered startup) would also have that extra time (extended deadline).

Arnold was actually a funny guy way back before he thought teachers/cops/fire/ems should get less benefits and Hitler was "admirable".

Btw I do think the extending the deadline is a great thing but didn't vote for/against it because it helps me, and I passionately believe in not voting about things that are in my personal interests.

I'm not sure I understand why you won't vote for something that is in your best interest -- you prefer not to help yourself?

Because I'm a neurotic jew* so I disqualify myself from the jury as biased.

* after writing this I just realized you're a founder of phaxio, and therefore a YU Grad :)

Ha, yup YU Grad here. Everybody in the jury is biased...the key is to collect information and make the best possible decision.

Do agree about apriori biased jury but since most of the people voting for extension are unaffected/unbiased that margin spoke loudest. Plus I control my own destiny more than some arbitrary date divinely hurled from the California clouds.

Kind of a debate class thing. I prefer to argue to the Aramaic death about things I don't care about.

Getting into YC isn't really a competition, at least according to what pg has said publicly many times. They'd be happy to take as many qualified companies as they can, and the real problem is that sometimes qualified companies are masked by incompetence at presenting themselves in the written app and the interview. Which is why it's so awesome that Gleb and others have put together guides to the process.

I think those guides are awesome. It's not a straight up competition, but I believe if two similar startups are doing something very cool but one is more polished, it will make the other one look less impressive.

Sort of like that line of George Costanza: "If you're funny and he's funny, then what am I? A short bald guy with glasses who suddenly doesn't seem so funny."

This is very much consistent with YC's cardinal principle not to fund bad startup, and not to miss good ones.

At the core, many folks forget that it is their own startup and foundation upon which they should focus, not whether the competition is strong.

Believe it or not (I'm mostly trolling with the video) I agree 100% and touched on this in the competitor/fear section of my application the other day.