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"King of the Cannibals": How Sam Altman Took over Silicon Valley

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Re: "King of the Cannibals": How Sam Altman Took over Silicon Valley

#21

Post by ethbr1 »

echelon wrote: post #15
IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #4

This kind of gives away the reason for his firing. He was pursuing his vision of AI incluing a chipset specific to LLM processing that would break nvidias hold of the market. Apparently the BoD didnt like it. They should have just been more forthcoming about it. Some CEOs would get fired for moonlighting. Others (Elon Musk, etc) build massive companies and make their existing companies more resilient and lasting. The…

> Some CEOs would get fired for moonlighting. Others (Elon Musk, etc) build massive companies and make their existing companies more resilient and lasting. I don't get why more CEO/founders don't found second and third companies. You build a great leadership team, then explore adjacent spaces that can reinforce your vision of the future. In a way, it can clear the space of potential competitors. Or build potential cu…

Also, self-risk broadening!

If you want to play in the big pool and own/run things, why not spread your personal risk over multiple ventures?

* Note: this for types constitutionally incapable of being happy retiring early with millions

Re: "King of the Cannibals": How Sam Altman Took over Silicon Valley

#23

Post by simion314 »

IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #4

This kind of gives away the reason for his firing. He was pursuing his vision of AI incluing a chipset specific to LLM processing that would break nvidias hold of the market. Apparently the BoD didnt like it. They should have just been more forthcoming about it. Some CEOs would get fired for moonlighting. Others (Elon Musk, etc) build massive companies and make their existing companies more resilient and lasting. The…

>The fact that employees closed ranks around him tell you which kind of CEO he is

I can only conclude that the guys were afraid for their big bag of cash, I would expect them would allow anything that would ensure they get an obscene amount of money.

Re: "King of the Cannibals": How Sam Altman Took over Silicon Valley

#24

Post by tilne »

rjzzleep wrote: post #17
mdorazio wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems there's more to it than that [1]. Altman did a surprisingly good job of cultivating a "nice guy" image among the tech crowd, but I personally don't buy it. [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/what-sam-altman-did-so-bad-h...

It's unfortunate that everyone else was so comically bad at literally any kind of communication. I'm starting to feel like the general advice lawyers give of say nothing is a terrible advice, when you have such a public facing company. It's like what you need in that situation is a communication coach first and a lawyer second. But as an engineer that also never learned this kind of narrative control, I too am strugg…

This sounds like snark but it’s not intended to be: do you really need sources to learn narrative control? Perceiving how narratives work seems to be a skill that almost all humans are very good at naturally. I acknowledge that shaping narratives is a different skill set (especially the parts that require putting yourself in a position to shape narratives effectively), but in my opinion if you’re already asking the question you already have all the foundational knowledge and awareness you need to start exercising those muscles as well.

Re: "King of the Cannibals": How Sam Altman Took over Silicon Valley

#26

Post by dbspin »

pixelatedindex wrote: post #9
mdorazio wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems there's more to it than that [1]. Altman did a surprisingly good job of cultivating a "nice guy" image among the tech crowd, but I personally don't buy it. [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/what-sam-altman-did-so-bad-h...

[flagged]

Altman's sister's 'memories' of abuse were developed in adulthood [1]. Recovered memories are deeply suspect, and a number of serious miscarriages of justice have happened because of them. Most infamously the 'satanic panic' trials of the eighties and early nineties. Elizabeth Loftus has done lots of good work on the dubious nature of eyewitness testimony, and recovered memories in particular [3]. Essentially, they're far more likely to be contrived than real - especially when 'recovered' decades later during psychotherapy. I trained as a psychoanalyst myself (in addition to studying pure psychology at undergrad), and while repression and denial are genuine and common defence mechanisms; there is a whole pseudoscientific cult around elevating them into sources of personal truth. This goes back to Freud's original sin - not believing the direct accounts of family sexual abuse from his female patients, and instead perceiving them as fantasies. Ironically this has often led to an overemphasis on the veracity of unconscious beliefs [2].

[1] https://www.greaterwrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-alt...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Assault_on_Truth#:~:text=T...

[3] https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/society/2017/ma....

Re: "King of the Cannibals": How Sam Altman Took over Silicon Valley

#29

Post by spacecadet »

echelon wrote: post #15
IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #4

This kind of gives away the reason for his firing. He was pursuing his vision of AI incluing a chipset specific to LLM processing that would break nvidias hold of the market. Apparently the BoD didnt like it. They should have just been more forthcoming about it. Some CEOs would get fired for moonlighting. Others (Elon Musk, etc) build massive companies and make their existing companies more resilient and lasting. The…

> Some CEOs would get fired for moonlighting. Others (Elon Musk, etc) build massive companies and make their existing companies more resilient and lasting. I don't get why more CEO/founders don't found second and third companies. You build a great leadership team, then explore adjacent spaces that can reinforce your vision of the future. In a way, it can clear the space of potential competitors. Or build potential cu…

I actually agree. While I more or less detest Musk and Dorsey, I do also appreciate as you put it, that they were able to build a leadership teams that can run the business while they go and about acting as the face of the business. Unfortunately I don't think they have succeeded fully at this, because to me their public image has now started to hurt their businesses...

Re: "King of the Cannibals": How Sam Altman Took over Silicon Valley

#30

Post by Zetobal »

dbspin wrote: post #26
pixelatedindex wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Altman's sister's 'memories' of abuse were developed in adulthood [1]. Recovered memories are deeply suspect, and a number of serious miscarriages of justice have happened because of them. Most infamously the 'satanic panic' trials of the eighties and early nineties. Elizabeth Loftus has done lots of good work on the dubious nature of eyewitness testimony, and recovered memories in particular [3]. Essentially, they'r…

boy do I need to have a talk with all my trauma patients...
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