Paul Graham once wrote that startups are pretty hard to game unlike academia for top grades or a big company for promotions.
In a twist of fate, YC itself seems to be gamed like those broken companies.
So this is the third counterintuitive thing to remember about startups: starting a startup is where gaming the system stops working. Gaming the system may continue to work if you go to work for a big company. Depending on how broken the company is, you can succeed by sucking up to the right people, giving the impression of productivity, and so on.
https://www.paulgraham.com/before.html /
https://archive.vn/UKky8