While it would be nice to think that the people accepted at Harvard are the most and only qualified people to go to Harvard we all know that is not the case.
Harvard can only accept so many people and many people who could do well there, and aren't accepted, will fail to get in because the decision process isn't perfect in who gets accepted and who doesn't (and I am not even speaking of people who get in for reasons such as family or some other advantage). There are only so many slots.
Substitute Harvard for anything where the amount of qualified people greatly exceed the number of slots available and the decision process isn't a lottery and the decision is made by humans.
So it would be natural for people to be jealous and maybe bitter if they see someone of equal ability to themselves get into Harvard. Especially if it was in their face everyday. (But it's not, at least with Harvard, the jealous person is probably on another campus. With YC, if you are a HN reader and enjoy it it is in your face every day.)
I don't disagree with you about college admissions (http://paulgraham.com/colleges.html). But in my experience investors try a lot harder than undergrad admissions officers, partly because they suffer fairly immediate consequences when they make mistakes in either direction. In that respect investment is more like graduate admissions, which is done by professors instead of admissions officers, and the professors get whoever they select as grad students. (And incidentally, I went to grad school at Harvard, not to Harvard College.)
While it would be nice to think that the people accepted at Harvard are the most and only qualified people to go to Harvard we all know that is not the case.
Harvard can only accept so many people and many people who could do well there, and aren't accepted, will fail to get in because the decision process isn't perfect in who gets accepted and who doesn't (and I am not even speaking of people who get in for reasons such as family or some other advantage). There are only so many slots.
Substitute Harvard for anything where the amount of qualified people greatly exceed the number of slots available and the decision process isn't a lottery and the decision is made by humans.
So it would be natural for people to be jealous and maybe bitter if they see someone of equal ability to themselves get into Harvard. Especially if it was in their face everyday. (But it's not, at least with Harvard, the jealous person is probably on another campus. With YC, if you are a HN reader and enjoy it it is in your face every day.)