"Y Combinator for people?"
Allocator2008: Short of a DNA scan, it is hard to see how one could select the best individuals. If one could show that one's parents were big business people, that lends confidence, but there is always a chance someone is on the short end of the gene pool. Would not it be great if we could predict the winners from the losers in society ahead of time, based on some selection criteria. But this is difficult. A DNA scan (expensive in itself) could show health and even cognitive fitness, and that could be augmented by IQ tests, etc., but there is not a sure way to do this. Only markets can determine fitness, and that is in retrospect. Ahead of time, I do not see how we can predict the fittest members of society, which is what this scheme would demand, the ones "most likely to become millionaires". Performance picks the smart from the dumb, but predicting this ahead of time is dubious. A DNA scan is as close as you could get I suppose, to weed out people with a likelihood of developing mental problems later on in life, etc., but still, there is error here. You want to find the Over-Man of Nietzsche. In my opinion the only Over-Man is that what the market determines. And you can't ever know that ahead of time, even with DNA sequencing. That helps your probabilities but you are still playing dice. Frankly I feel there is no such thing as the "Over-Man", there is only people whom markets favor over others, and knowing which ones those are going to be is rather hopeless.