> Paul later told me that the big difference was that he recognized me from Hacker News and that I said smart things there. So if that was the critical difference, the question is, “Why was I saying smart things?”
Another question might be, "How would you have faired had you been a mere lurker on HN?"
Beware the temptation to post on HN in order to look smart for your YC application. Better to spend time working on your company and save your HN comments for when you actually have something to say.
Beware the temptation to do anything just to look smart for your YC application, (or life). As beneficial as I think YC is, it's not magic pixie dust, and you're in just as bad of shape if you get in on false pretenses.
The reason why some people succeed, even when everyone tells them they're wrong, is they do something they believe in. Everything else is secondary.
HN is a great place to learn, there are tons and tons of people here that are a lot smarter than me and some debate helps to enlighten my sometimes dark and isolated viewpoints.
I'm living in a fairly out of the way location as far as the IT world is concerned, HN is pretty much the only contact I have with fellow hackers working on a myriad of interesting stuff.
There hasn't been an ask HN post that I put out that didn't come back with several insightful options, the sum of which was larger than the experience of any one live person that I know.
It's a fantastic resource, and a place where you can make friends that are hackers too.
That it's a factor in getting your YC application judged can safely be ignored, the very few edge cases where that's applicable do not make it worth the effort for those that might be inclined to try to game the system by flooding hn with 'insightful' comments.
In fact it's probably statistically pretty easy to puncture that balloon.
Post here because you enjoy it and love the community. Odds are if you come here to just "look smart" or increase your odds at getting into YC you will be sorely disappointed.
I think a good rule of thumb is to do what feels natural rather than forced. For example, I comment on HN just as I've always done on TechCrunch. My team plans to submit an application because it seems a natural step for us. In fact, we feel our project fills a natural need, and would be going full steam ahead with or without YC.
Another question might be, "How would you have faired had you been a mere lurker on HN?"