Top all-time · #1647
Jessica Livingston
Personal blog · foundersatwork.posthaven.comstartupswritingcareer
Jessica Livingston's personal blog at foundersatwork.posthaven.com covers startups, writing and career. Since 2014, 46 different Hacker News readers have linked it 57 times, most often “The Sound of Silence – Jessica Livingston on the impact of online hostility”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-05-23, and you can follow it by feed.
Jessica Livingston
Most-linked posts?
- The Sound of Silence – Jessica Livingston on the impact of online hostility10 people · 15 mentions · first linked 2020-06-23
- Grow the Puzzle Around You7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2021-01-06
- The Social Radar: What I Did at Y Combinator4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2015-03-04
- Women: Learn to Program This Summer3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-03-22
- Think about Equity2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-04-26
- Jessica Livingston – Grow the Puzzle Around You2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-06-30
- The Sound of Silence2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-01-13
- Why Startups Need to Focus on Sales, Not Marketing2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-06-20
- Grow the Puzzle Around You2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-06-30
- Y Combinator When No One Cared2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-05-01
What Hacker News says?
Reading this made me think of two essays I've recently revisited. 1. The Sound of Silence, by Jessica Livingston Three years ago she argued that the smartest people are silencing themselves because the downside risk of being attacked for (misinterpretations of) their opinions are too high. People are wary of sharing useful information outside of trusted circles, which serves to consolidate power with insiders – thos…
Comment linking /the-sound-of-silence
on “I Am Deleting the Blog”- jl · 2025-05-23
Submitted Find Your People as a story · 806 points
HN discussion Here's an older piece by Jessica herself, on being a social radar, and the "mom" of the family: http://foundersatwork.posthaven.com/the-social-radar-what-i-... (I posted this partly due to the predictable reaction to PG's use of the word mom.)
Comment linking /the-social-radar-what-i-did-at-y-combinator
on “Jessica Livingston”Submitted Grow the Puzzle Around You as a story · 613 points
HN discussionSorry, I was mistaken. I looked up the quote: http://foundersatwork.posthaven.com/the-sound-of-silence One of my favorite parts of “What You Can’t Say”: > Darwin himself was careful to tiptoe around the implications of his theory. He wanted to spend his time thinking about biology, not arguing with people who accused him of being an atheist. That's quite a bit different from calling it her favorite. Anyway, I was on…
Comment linking /the-sound-of-silence
on “Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo”Submitted Y Combinator When No One Cared as a story · 388 points
HN discussion> It's safe for them to express their opinions, because the source of their opinions is whatever it's currently acceptable to believe. So it seems to them that it must be safe for everyone. They literally can't imagine a true statement that would get them in trouble. It seems to me that this stems from two interrelated issues: 1. People defaulting to their tribal position (red/blue in the US) without thinking deeply…
Comment linking /the-sound-of-silence
on “Orthodox Privilege”Submitted The Sound of Silence as a story · 344 points
HN discussion"The issue isn't that PearAI did something illegal—it's that they got funded by YC with nothing more than a codebase copied from another YC-backed company. This shows that (1) YC is willing to fund just about anything, (2) they’re not doing any real due diligence, and (3) they don't particularly care about their existing portfolio companies." This shows a fundamental misunderstanding on how YC functions. YCombinator…
Comment linking /the-social-radar-what-i-did-at-y-combinator
on “Y Combinator Traded Prestige for Growth”- jl · 2019-03-22
Submitted Women: Learn to Program This Summer as a story · 268 points
HN discussion As someone in this space, I think you're approach this wrong. You find early users by hand, reaching out to people you know have this problem and asking them to use the product (you would typically do this before even making it work properly as a SaaS product). Jessica Livingston says it better than me: http://foundersatwork.posthaven.com/why-startups-need-to-foc...
Comment linking /why-startups-need-to-focus-on-sales-not-marketing
on “Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?”Submitted My Interviews with Airbnb, Dropbox, Posterous, Reddit, Weebly and Wufoo as a story · 252 points
HN discussion"When have you most successfully hacked a non-computer system to your advantage?", which in my mind neatly translates to "what's the most psychopathic thing you've ever done?" If this is a correct translation, YC would be using it as a no-invest signal more than anything else, given how much the two original founders have talked about the importance of good character and decency in being a successful founder: http:/…
Comment linking /the-social-radar-what-i-did-at-y-combinator
on “Browserling goes viral with cheap phone users trying to use WhatsApp”Submitted The Social Radar: What I Did at Y Combinator as a story · 205 points
HN discussionI'm sorry, are you asking if Paul Graham is comfortable interrupting people and making clarifying statements? https://techcrunch.com/video/paul-grahams-office-hours-tips-... Jump to 6:20 and tell me with a straight face that PG is concerned about interjection. He literally could have just chuckled and helpfully offered, "well... co-founder!" Here's the thing: I'm a PG fan and I'm not trying to be pedantic. Jessica h…
Comment linking /grow-the-puzzle-around-you
on “A Conversation with Paul Graham [video]”Submitted What Makes Founders Succeed as a story · 189 points
HN discussionIn other places YC has described this as bullshitting and their answer is Jessica. They claim (at least publicly) that she significantly shifts the ratio to favor people with real skill over those who are good at advertising it. http://foundersatwork.posthaven.com/the-social-radar-what-i-...
Comment linking /the-social-radar-what-i-did-at-y-combinator
on “YC 120”Submitted Subtle Mid-Stage Startup Pitfalls as a story · 162 points
HN discussionOff topic, but I found this circular reference apt for a post about learning programming, and thus quite amusing too. This post links to "Why I started the Summer Hackers Program" [1] and that post has a link to this one. http://foundersatwork.posthaven.com/why-i-started-the-summer...
Comment linking /why-i-started-the-summer-hackers-program
on “Women: Learn to Program This Summer”Submitted Startups: The Very Beginning as a story · 146 points
HN discussionHere's the blog post explaining why Jessica is doing this http://foundersatwork.posthaven.com/why-i-started-the-summer...
Comment linking /why-i-started-the-summer-hackers-program
on “Women: Learn to Program This Summer”Submitted Why I Love Startup School as a story · 121 points
HN discussion> Are there any hidden details that are usually not mentioned? Yes. In general there are hidden details but what those specifically are, I can't tell you. I can speak freely since I was expelled from YC. # Background I did YC twice, in 2008 and 2009. YC invested ~$15,000 in both startups. I don't keep a close eye on it, but I think nowadays they give you 33.3333x as much money. My first startup we shut down. I didn'…
Comment linking /the-sound-of-silence
on “YC is doing a first ever Fall batch – applications due by 8/27”Submitted Lessons from Airbnb's Rejections as a story · 106 points
HN discussionThe amount of "let's help women/minorities specifically" programs and scholarships are numerous, but this one caught my eye a few months ago. > I'm going to give 40 women $9000 stipends to cover their living expenses while they take Lambda School's programming course.[0] [0] http://foundersatwork.posthaven.com/women-learn-to-program-t...
Comment linking /women-learn-to-program-this-summer
on “Two women programmers played a pivotal role in the birth of chaos theory”Submitted What's Different about “Unicorns” as a story · 91 points
HN discussionJessica Livingston's own words ( https://foundersatwork.posthaven.com/the-sound-of-silence ) """Not surprisingly, the juiciest targets for this sort of willful misinterpretation are organizations and people who are successful. They have power, and power makes them both interesting and envied; I teach founders they all have to be prepared for this as their startups grow. In my blog post, "Subtle Mid-Stage Startup Pit…
Comment linking /the-sound-of-silence
on “Jessica Livingston (2015)”Submitted Think Different – Think Users as a story · 63 points
HN discussionMight as well link Jessica Livingston's post at https://foundersatwork.posthaven.com/the-sound-of-silence Its' start: """ I recently heard one of the more interesting insights about Silicon Valley I'd heard in a while. It explained something I’d wondered about for years. But I can't tell you what it was. There's too much downside in sharing any opinion that could easily be misinterpreted online. Even facts are dange…
Comment linking /the-sound-of-silence
on “Jessica Livingston (2015)”Submitted Think about Equity as a story · 61 points
HN discussion
