Top all-time · #11235
Ricky Yean
Personal blog · rickyyean.comstartupsculture
Ricky Yean's personal blog at rickyyean.com covers startups and culture. Since 2019, 7 different Hacker News readers have linked it 9 times, most often “Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley (2016)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-05-04, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (3) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Essays on startup founders' backgrounds, including the claim that few successful founders grew up desperately poor and the idea of a poverty mindset. Also linked for a piece on why Vine failed and TikTok succeeded.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 3 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
I'm a 3x startup founder and occasional writer. I'm a Stanford, Y Combinator and StartX alum. Currently I'm building Flow Club, a virtual co-working service designed to help you fly through your tasks and feel great about your work. Learn more about me or Follow @rickyyean. Popular Essays: Privilege
Most-linked posts?
- Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley (2016)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-11-18
- Single-Serving Friends2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-11-21
What Hacker News says?
> Why is TikTok succeeding while Vine failed? https://rickyyean.com/2020/01/20/from-socialcam-to-tiktok-ho...
Comment linking /2020/01/20/from-socialcam-to-tiktok-how-we-figured-out-video-social-in-a-decade/
on “Vine founder launches TikTok competitor”Submitted Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley (2016) as a story · 5 points
HN discussionBut this person is one of the success stories. It was difficult for me to feel sympathy. I didn’t get the point of this piece. Fine. Ok. I read the whole thing. This person should have gotten a ‘lucrative job’...so he can become comfortably well off, lose the baggage and then should have gone the entrepreneurial route. Too early to become an entrepreneur. He isn’t ready for it. ETA: this article is from 2016. I look…
Comment linking /2019/11/01/single-serving-friends/
on “Silicon Valley founders who grew up poor can’t shake “mindset inequality””Submitted The Arc of Social as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI read this article 10 years ago by a guy named Ricky Yean who went to Stanford as an economically disadvantaged admit and couldn’t shake his poverty mindset and it cost him when he was running a startup. Why “few successful startup founders grew up desperately poor” https://rickyyean.com/2016/01/22/privilege-and-inequality-in... Poverty mindset is maladaptive because it teaches you only money is worth anything, so…
Comment linking /2016/01/22/privilege-and-inequality-in-silicon-valley/
on “Maladaptive Frugality”Submitted Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted What do we lose when AI does our work? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Privilege and Inequality in Silicon Valley as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Single-Serving Friends as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
