If you're really sitting on +4 sigma talent and are lacking the money to move your plans forward, drop an email address here so I can contact you.
I am planning on putting up a 'Proposition HN' in a week, with this exact thing in mind. I want to pay talented HNers to work on their dream/vision/side-project in exchange for participation/equity.
Sigma is usually used to represent the standard deviation.
+4 sigma would mean four standard deviations from the mean. So in this case he is saying his talent is higher than 99.9966% of people.
So in this case he is saying his talent is higher than 99.9966% of people.
+4 sigma for certain things, not overall. It's not even possible to measure "+4 sigma overall intelligence" and if it were, I doubt I'd be the one who has it. But there are certain subdisciplines where I'm in that range.
I say "+4 sigma" because for the vast majority of companies I've observed, I could run them better, and they seem to at least think they have 2-3 sigma talent.
If we accept that the people who actually are in charge are +2 to +3 sigma minds, then I'm easily +5 based on the difference between me and them. If we assume they're idiots, then it'd be generous to give me +3. The reality is probably between the two.
Assuming it is iQ for example,i would guess that +4 sigma would mean 4*15=60 above the mean,which if you take as 100 gives 160.I would welcome a better clarification of this.
I'm actually reasonably happy with where I am, because I have a career strategy that I think will work. Startups aren't the only path and, if you have no connections and are going to be "just a programmer", they're not always even a good path.
Most successful entrepreneurs started in finance because, for better or worse, that's a way to build credibility. Remember that VCs are also financiers and will be biased in favor of that experience, even if it's not relevant to what most startups need.
At a finance company with no defined "data science" role.
Attempting to see if I can create that niche (data science) in a large company, first for myself. If so, then things will go really well. If not, then I'll probably be getting back into "regular tech" mid-2013.
I am planning on putting up a 'Proposition HN' in a week, with this exact thing in mind. I want to pay talented HNers to work on their dream/vision/side-project in exchange for participation/equity.
Watch this space.