AI has upended the once "safe" CS career path. New grads are facing unemployment rates twice those of art history majors, and a CS degree is no longer a surefire ticket to wealth. At the same time, small, focused teams are scaling from zero to eight-figure revenue in months. In a special Lightcone Live at AI Startup School, Garry, Diana, Harj, and Jared discuss why it's now more important than ever to focus on building real skills, domain expertise, and agency rather than just chasing credentials. 04:18 - The Inverted Career Risk Paradigm 05:16 - AI's Impact on Education and Skills 07:08 - Agency vs. Credential Maxing 08:28 - Motivation: Fear or Excitement 09:43 - The Accelerated Growth of AI Startups 10:50 - Real Success over Fake Credentials 12:55 - Domain Expertise and Technical Expertise 15:05 - Gaining Domain Expertise as a Student 18:51 - Breaking the Student Mindset 20:39 - The Dangers of Entrepreneurship Programs 22:52 - Social Media Strategy for Startups 27:30 - The College Dropout Question 32:33 - When to Quit Your Job
@ycombinator The only evergreen discipline is “thinking.”
@ycombinator Shared with my kids along with some advice - love this: x.com/abemurray/stat…
@ycombinator Shared with my kids along with some advice - love this: x.com/abemurray/stat…
@ycombinator It’s a wake-up call for grads to adapt, learn constantly, and think beyond the classroom.
@ycombinator Credentials are the old currency; skills are the new gold.
@ycombinator It’s ironic: CS was sold as the rational career path, but it turned out to be just another prestige treadmill. Meanwhile, the real 'rationalists' are dropping out, building, and making millions in silence. The safe path was the illusion all along.
CS degree aint what it used to be. I graduated uni with a Bachelor of Arts degree , but taught myself coding through YouTube Tuts and stack overflow forums chats 🤣 AI and “vibe coding” has insanely reduced the time between idea -concept- beta product. At any given time Im working on multiple ideas and building. I have a feeling we will be discussing something in the near future . To everyone on the TL, remember this. I WILL be the founder of a Multi-billion dollar project, not because I’m after the money buy because I know I will create something of insane value . The $$$ valuation will just be a confirmation of the value add my project has . Mark my words world! 🔥
@ycombinator Sad that building real skills and getting a credential aren’t the same thing.
@ycombinator Garry Tan just dropped an F-bomb sir
@ycombinator Another thought about dropping or completing college is you can finish college later if the startup path fails, so if the startup opportunity in front of you is extraordinary--whether you have a degree or not yet--can be its own independent decision. Dropping college isn't fatal.
@ycombinator The dangers of entrepreneurship programs seems interesting here Let’s see how YC shaping up future with many hurdles in future
@ycombinator Ironic how AI is making technical skills both more accessible and less valuable. The real moat now is domain expertise and the ability to identify real problems.
@ycombinator This deserves a website. I’ll build it in 3 minutes — want a look?
@ycombinator Small teams with AI are unstoppable now
@ycombinator Who would have thought that CS career mostly teaches pattern match and use Stackoverflow. Btw, what's YC going to do now?
@ycombinator this shift flips the playbook — domain mastery and real-world agency now outvalue degrees, especially as nimble teams redefine scale. wondering how founders are recalibrating hiring to spot that blend of skill and grit over credentials alone.
@ycombinator YC podcasts aren't the same without @mwseibel and @daltonc . They were just inherently good at that and the advice felt very authentic
@ycombinator Gary going for real in the introduction.
@ycombinator Thank you @ycombinator for delivering this value.
@ycombinator The career game has changed. In a world where AI builds fast, real-world execution beats paper resumes.
@ycombinator this post hides details. there are more cs jobs now than ever, but there's also an astonishing increase in the number of people who have chosen to take cs degrees... supply and demand must go up together, otherwise you can draw some funny conclusions
This is terrifying for CS students, and it's why "just having a CS degree" isn't enough anymore. The market now demands not just coding ability, but the ability to apply that code to build real, AI-powered products. @nexternai is the bridge. We provide the real-world projects that turn a CS grad into a job-ready product builder.
@ycombinator what happened to the video "This is What Young Founders Should Focus On"? it was so helpful youtube.com/watch?v=3yAoIT…
@ycombinator CS grads are now at a risk of unemployment as the History majors grads No one would have guessed this would happen
@ycombinator Yc will always be the boss no matter what people say
@ycombinator @pmarca you think @cluely represents the current tech industry?
@ycombinator No longer a safe bet. Adaptation is a must in this new world.
@ycombinator This is the era of the grifter, though. A persuasive/believable lie is way more valuable than the truth. 🤷♂️
