Reminds me of "Instantes" by Jorge Luis Borges:

If I were able to live my life anew, In the next I would try to commit more errors. I would not try to be so perfect, I would relax more. I would be more foolish than I've been, In fact, I would take few things seriously. I would be less hygienic. I would run more risks, take more vacations, contemplate more sunsets, climb more mountains, swim more rivers. I would go to more places where I've never been, I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans, I would have more real problems and less imaginary ones. I was one of those people that lived sensibly and prolifically each minute of his life; Of course I had moments of happiness. If I could go back I would try to have only good moments.

Because if you didn't know, of that is life made: only of moments; Don't lose the now.

I was one of those that never went anywhere without a thermometer, a hot-water bottle, an umbrella, and a parachute; If I could live again, I would travel lighter. If I could live again, I would begin to walk barefoot from the beginning of spring and I would continue barefoot until autumn ends. I would take more cart rides, contemplate more dawns, and play with more children, If I had another life ahead of me.

But already you see, I am 85, and I know that I am dying.

My questions:

- What advice would pg (2010 instance) give to pg (2004 instance)?

- What property of the 4 yc partners, if removed, would do the most damage?

- What has surprised you the most?

- What is the biggest mistake people have made?

- What is the biggest thing that will have to be different (about yc) in the future?

- What kind of yc startup is most likely to hit a grand slam home run?

Woah woah woah. I live in Toronto. Mississauga is a suburb. They got out of debt by getting into bed with developers who went wild with unrestricted development. All this wouldn't be out of the norm if the mayor's son wasn't a developer and she had excused herself from meetings involving the city and his company. But she failed to disclose the conflict of interest and her son's company benefited. Mississauga is now a textbook case of traffic gridlock, is starting to experience high violent crime (because all the families that moved their in the 1990s now have teenagers with nothing to do), and it is on track to lose its debt-free status as of 2012.

http://www.mississauga.com/news/article/507414

Hurricane Hazel is definitely a character though. I don't disagree with everything she's done but I've always been particularly skeptical of how she ran the city's books because I figured that it was unsustainable and the population would eventually have to pay. The developers helped build out their infrastructure but now that the development boom has matured there, the tax payers are left having to maintain it. It will cost them and I expect they'll run deficit budgets for much of this decade.

Google has always been this way as far as I can tell. They're basically using Microsoft's old strategy of "clone it and give it away so we can sell more of Windows" only with Google it's ads.

The difference is everyone still loves them. Microsoft was seen as ruthlessly destroying their competition. Google is seen as innovative. Bizarre.

Wow, these are good questions. But it's 10:58 so I'll try to answer them afterward.

Edit: Answers:

1. Not to be influenced by credentials. Where people went to school in particular.

2. Our own determination, probably. We need it too, not just the founders.

3. How many people just give up.

4. That founders have made? Building stuff users don't really care about.

5. Doing everything on a larger scale.

6. The kind with the right founders.

Note: the gold star next to the post means that the reddit moderators have verified the claims/identity of the interviewee.

On a scale of one to fucking nuts, this is fucking nuts.