Korva is a scroll of the internet’s best ideas.
Have you tried solving the problem?
The pattern shows up as a habit of overengineering. Someone convinces themselves that an elaborate approach will beat the obvious one, then spends fifteen minutes explaining the great idea. The response that cuts through it is one question: have you tried actually just solving the problem?
It is the most common advice a YC partner gives to startups. A founder describes exactly what they plan to do, and the partner asks whether they have tried solving the problem. The reminder is that in many situations there is no way around, only through.
The same instinct shows up in small ways. Time goes into charging earbuds and hunting for the armband that holds a phone before a 30-minute run. One person went further and ordered a phone armband for delivery before a run, then waited 45 minutes for it to arrive, for a run of half a mile that could have started at once.
Why do people reach for complicated fixes first?
In a 2021 study in the journal Nature, Gabrielle Adams and colleagues found that people systematically overlook solutions that remove things and default to ones that add things. Across many tasks, participants rarely thought of the simpler subtractive option unless prompted. Adding feels productive and visible. The researchers tested this with building designs, essays, and recipes.
What does a YC partner do all day?
Y Combinator was founded in 2005 by Paul Graham, Jessica Livingston, Robert Morris, and Trevor Blackwell. It funds startups in batches and gives them regular office hours with partners. In those sessions, a founder lays out a plan and a partner pushes back on it. Partners are usually former founders themselves.