There is a common saying on Stanford’s campus: it is easier to get into Y Combinator than to get a real job.
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I didn’t think much of it until last Friday, when I grabbed lunch in SF with an old friend, a Princeton grad who left finance to build a startup. When I offered to connect him with some sharp Stanford students, he laughed. “No Stanford kids,” he said. “They’re cowards.”
We both cracked up, but his words gnawed at me the whole drive back to campus. They forced me to question something uncomfortable: Why aren’t today’s Stanford students like those from 20 years ago?
