Who was Seth's blog post directed to?

[Pizzamancer]

I can only imagine that Seth's recent blog post (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/) is a thinly veiled way to send a very direct message to the applicants to the program that were turned down. I was wondering how many people here who were turned down sent an email like the one described in the first paragraph.

Anyone want to step up?

[Matt Cheney]

I thought the exact same thing. I didn't say anything, but maybe he's calling us out for not saying anything. Should we have sent him a thank you card?

[Pizzamancer]

Fuck that. Thank you for emailing me a canned response? He didn't do any of us favors by sending that email. As the matter of fact he did us all a disservice. Don't mean to toot my own horn here, but I was in the #1 position longer than any other applicant in the crowd favorites, as well as being #1 in the google search for a while before ending up around #4 when the decision was made. I for one think I deserve at least a short note letting me know what knocked me out of the running so I can work on it.

People with half completed apps and that 17 year old idiot deserved the treatment they got. The number of completed apps is significantly lower than the 300 or so that come up in the google search, and the number within those written by people that could actually attend was far lower than that. It is clear that decisions were made well in advance, and a few 3 line emails is not too much to ask.

[Matt Corker]

Mass e-mails don't make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. No argument there.

What they do do is get the same message out to many people in a short period of time. Taking in to consideration the number of anxious people that were waiting to get an e-mail from Seth on Sunday, I can understand completely why a 3 line e-mail wasn't sent out to you, or me, or anyone on this group.

We would all talk about it, just like we have been doing up to the deadline. But this time we wouldn't have received the same information so it would have been a lot of "He told ME this, but he told YOU that, yadda yadda yadda." We would question his judgment, his rational behind each choice, the process, etc. So instead of enduring that, he made it simple and we all got the same rejection letter.

Now, it's up to you to determine the best way to deal with the news. Choose your attitude about it. "You can never let anyone drive you crazy unless you give them the keys."