I like your ambitions and the ability to write popular posts on HN. But I do not buy into this post, it's obvious that there's is something which bothers you:
You together with your friends were rejected by YC in the past, now your friends got into YC—without you.
So, what does it mean? Was it because of you? Are your friends more entrepreneurial than you and are they just smarter? Graham says the team is always more important than the idea and that he rather takes great teams with mediocre ideas than the other way round—so it must be you, you do not fit into YC?! Or was it just by accident? Nobody knows but this awkward feeling will stay with you for some time.
Getting into YC is for many younger entrepreneurs and starters a great opportunity and finally an approval for their skills. Saying "I decided not to go" to the interview and then after your friends gotten into YC saying "but again, I said no" and writing just a long blog post is just—sorry no offense—the desperate try to keep your state and save your face. It's like those guys in a bar seeing a hot babe too shy to approach her saying "no, she not my type" or "c'mon guys, is this your league? She is ugly!".
Bringing up the job offer from Friedman (which was more kind of a PR stunt of 42floor) is another weak try to prove that you go your own way forgetting that this job offer was ok but not a real opportunity like YC.
Not that YC is everything and that you won't have other opportunities but we all know that YC could have been a great opportunity learning new stuff for you and why miss it? This was a heavy bummer which you haven't worked up yet. You don't need to tell the world about it or that it hurts you but don't tell us that you are fine that you missed the hot babe while your friends are dating her already for months.
This post got downvoted, but there are some interesting points.
I also read the part about "my friends got in without me" and was like "Oh snap, that's awkward." Reading a post on the Internet, you don't know what happened in the mean time. Maybe they worked really hard. Maybe Dan really was dragging them down, and the team seemed more solid without him. Maybe it was just luck (the rest of the applicant pool was weaker 2nd time around). There's some introspection Dan could have here. What was different? What was missing, and do I need to work on that piece?
But they still wanted Dan to join. Those are some pretty good friends.
>"We all know that YC could have been a great opportunity learning new stuff"
Who cares? I also don't believe that YC is the end-all-be-all. If you accept something "just for the opportunity", then you'll be perpetually running around looking for that. For one, college is an opportunity his friends are passing up (for now).
It reminds me of a situation a friend of mine was in. He was applying to Techstars for his startup, and then he got an internship at Facebook. He accepted, but he was trying to decide whether he should quit the internship if he got into Techstars. A professor of ours suggested that he had greater opportunities at Facebook than Techstars, because he'd meet hundreds of people in the mobile space, and that was worth more than what Techstars was going to provide him for his mobile advertising system. If he left for the "great opportunity," then he would have left Facebook. By the way, that's where he joined after graduation. That was quite the opportunity that he would have passed up.
I agree with Dan that we always need to periodically stop and evaluate what we're doing and why. Sometimes things are done a particular way because "that's the way it is." If there's newer and better ways of doing something, do that. If there's another path that will get you to the same endpoint (a flourishing business), is the route going to matter that much? The vision will keep you going in the right direction, and so long as that doesn't change, it doesn't matter what obstacles are thrown in your way.
You together with your friends were rejected by YC in the past, now your friends got into YC—without you.
So, what does it mean? Was it because of you? Are your friends more entrepreneurial than you and are they just smarter? Graham says the team is always more important than the idea and that he rather takes great teams with mediocre ideas than the other way round—so it must be you, you do not fit into YC?! Or was it just by accident? Nobody knows but this awkward feeling will stay with you for some time.
Getting into YC is for many younger entrepreneurs and starters a great opportunity and finally an approval for their skills. Saying "I decided not to go" to the interview and then after your friends gotten into YC saying "but again, I said no" and writing just a long blog post is just—sorry no offense—the desperate try to keep your state and save your face. It's like those guys in a bar seeing a hot babe too shy to approach her saying "no, she not my type" or "c'mon guys, is this your league? She is ugly!".
Bringing up the job offer from Friedman (which was more kind of a PR stunt of 42floor) is another weak try to prove that you go your own way forgetting that this job offer was ok but not a real opportunity like YC.
Not that YC is everything and that you won't have other opportunities but we all know that YC could have been a great opportunity learning new stuff for you and why miss it? This was a heavy bummer which you haven't worked up yet. You don't need to tell the world about it or that it hurts you but don't tell us that you are fine that you missed the hot babe while your friends are dating her already for months.