&gt;It&#x27;s not cult-like, but it does seem arbitrary.<p>To be clear, I did not say it is cult-like, only that it is unclear.<p>If YC does operate on a magic oracle, then I might argue that it might be a cult.<p>&gt;Of course, that&#x27;s what all job interviews are like. If they get a bad vibe from you or think you&#x27;re not a &quot;culture fit&quot;, they can quickly reject you based on a short impression. And that&#x27;s not necessarily a bad thing.<p>I&#x27;m not sure what it means that a YC interview may be thought of as a job interview, but I share your concerns. I&#x27;m also concerned that the essays may encourage such behavior. While the teams of the sort YC are organizing may benefit from such a selection process (&quot;culture fit&quot;), without any logical explanation of the process, the essays essentially encourage people to go out to start their own cults.