We humans tend to assume that everyone sees something about us, when a much smaller amount actually notice (and an even smaller amount actually care). This has rejected startups thinking "What did I do" when it really has nothing to do with them at all (just that someone else was better).
Not even necessarily that someone was better - people who read applications are human too, they have things that resonate with them, they have opinions, fallible memories, biases and gut feelings. At the end of the day, this comes in to play too, as well it should. Getting rejected doesn't mean you were empirically worse than any given candidate, it may just mean the two parties involved in the possible relationship don't have the chemistry that would make the endeavor the best it could be. At the end of the day, there's a limit to what you can infer about the relative merits of your idea from a rejection letter.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotlight_effect
- http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-big-questions/201111...
We humans tend to assume that everyone sees something about us, when a much smaller amount actually notice (and an even smaller amount actually care). This has rejected startups thinking "What did I do" when it really has nothing to do with them at all (just that someone else was better).