What's funny about this is that the YCombinator application actually asks you how many lines of code your app is. I took the question as a chance to rant about the irony of a software accelerator geared on making you an "software expert" asking this question.
If you've written 0 LOC for your revolutionary artificial intelligence system, or 1,000,000 LOC for your "Instagram for Squirrels" app, I'm likely to be equally suspicious. Otherwise there's a wide range of acceptable answers for that question.
Why would you rant about this? You don't know what they're even looking for in an answer. How many LOC there are in your app is relevant but doesn't necessarily mean it's going to effect your application in any way. I think the history of some of the groups accepted speaks to this.
I seriously doubt they "rank" applications by KLOC, they just want to see if you have enough for a decent demo/prototype. Something that shows some implementation effort. And I suspect there's nothing wrong with zero if it makes sense in the context of that particular application.
Why is it ironic? Lines of code is a good estimate of complexity. The point of the article is that increase in complexity is not a good estimate of progress.
