What I&#x27;m seeing a lot of is discomfort with the seemingly arbitrary nature of social interactions and making judgments based on them. We nerds (and I am among this bunch) don&#x27;t really like the fact that popularity, &quot;emotional IQ&quot;, and social influence are not quantifiable, but we are judged on them, anyway. When someone wants to be judged on very clear metrics, being told there is a mysterious &quot;other&quot; metric that seems to reside in the head of one person, is uncomfortable, maybe even frightening.<p>The thing is, however, that <i>everything</i> you do will also have this metric applied to it, by everyone you interact with, and it is a metric that impacts success. Any sales interaction you have, any hiring process you implement, any investor meeting you have, etc. All human interactions will be judged with this metric in addition to the other metrics. Is it &quot;fair&quot;? I don&#x27;t know. But, it is reality. Given that, having someone who is good at it, on a team that is otherwise <i>not</i> good at it (and having read pg on nerds and popularity, I can surmise he considers himself not terribly good at it; nerds in general are famously socially inept), is worthwhile.<p>Which raises the concern that the social ineptitude of a technically brilliant founder might prevent them from getting into YC (and I think that is the fear being expressed in this thread). I can say that most YC founders I know are charming people; nerdy, mostly, but still charming and socially adept, at least when interacting with similarly nerdy peers. Is this a prerequisite for startup success? And, is it actually what is being selected for when we talk about this &quot;social radar&quot;? I don&#x27;t know. I don&#x27;t think I have this particular skill strongly enough to recognize a hit and a miss on these metrics, though I can spot technical fakery a mile away (and there&#x27;s a surprisingly high number of applicants who are technically incompetent trying to pass for competent; I suspect few make it past the application process).