Neither did Steve Jobs and no one cared.
Sam Altman's Coworkers Say He Can Barely Code and Misunderstands Basic Concepts
31–40 of 59 posts
Re: Sam Altman's Coworkers Say He Can Barely Code and Misunderstands Basic Concepts
#32[dead]
Re: Sam Altman's Coworkers Say He Can Barely Code and Misunderstands Basic Concepts
#33Wait, that's it? Seven paragraphs, all short? Two quotes, one from some anonymous MS exec? Is the site sending some minimal version of the article to me because I'm using Brave, or is this the lowest-content article I've seen in weeks (and I'm on Twitter)?
Re: Sam Altman's Coworkers Say He Can Barely Code and Misunderstands Basic Concepts
#34I’m old enough to remember that Sam Altman’s claim to fame before OpenAI, before running YC, was running a failed also-ran location-based whatever Web 2.0 scam startup thing that accomplished nothing and that no one remembers. His entire “career” is based on persuading people with money to give him more of it. The incentive structures are such that everyone sucks up to people in a position to give you a lot of money,…
> persuading people with money to give him more of it A key skill nevertheless.
My guess is most people on HN owe their livelihoods to people with this skill.
Re: Sam Altman's Coworkers Say He Can Barely Code and Misunderstands Basic Concepts
#35This doesn’t really surprise me. Most company leaders don’t have a detailed view of day to day work, they couldn’t step in and do every employee’s job. What they are good at is creating a clear story and direction that brings people together around a shared goal. That’s what Sam has done, especially in how he’s sold that vision to investors and raised billions. You could say the same about leaders like Elon Musk or Steve Jobs. It’s not necessarily a perfect system, but it’s often how companies grow and attract funding. No, they are not the perfect humans. It's just how business works.
Re: Sam Altman's Coworkers Say He Can Barely Code and Misunderstands Basic Concepts
#36I’m old enough to remember that Sam Altman’s claim to fame before OpenAI, before running YC, was running a failed also-ran location-based whatever Web 2.0 scam startup thing that accomplished nothing and that no one remembers. His entire “career” is based on persuading people with money to give him more of it. The incentive structures are such that everyone sucks up to people in a position to give you a lot of money,…
We need to start talking about people like this truthfully: they are sick. Fucked up. Broken. They do not deserve fame or fortune, they deserve a padded cell, close observation by psychologists and neurologists and try and figure out how we can stop it happening. Horribly manipulative Smaug-likes who only care for themselves, why must the rest of us be beholden to them? To be victims to the havoc they wreak? Why do w…
Nonconformists often wrankle, but sometimes they're the only ones who can get people to align to do something different.
Re: Sam Altman's Coworkers Say He Can Barely Code and Misunderstands Basic Concepts
#37even if this were true, PG (who can code, and can tell if someone else can) didn't think it was an issue when handing over YC to Altman.
Perhaps that says less of altman and more of YC.
Re: Sam Altman's Coworkers Say He Can Barely Code and Misunderstands Basic Concepts
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
We need to start talking about people like this truthfully: they are sick. Fucked up. Broken. They do not deserve fame or fortune, they deserve a padded cell, close observation by psychologists and neurologists and try and figure out how we can stop it happening. Horribly manipulative Smaug-likes who only care for themselves, why must the rest of us be beholden to them? To be victims to the havoc they wreak? Why do w…
Nonconformists often wrankle, but sometimes they're the only ones who can get people to align to do something different.
Being nonconformist and being a fucked up psycho are not the same thing.
Re: Sam Altman's Coworkers Say He Can Barely Code and Misunderstands Basic Concepts
#39> I think there's a small but real chance he's eventually remembered as a Bernie Madoff What's with all the hit pieces on Sam Altman lately? He's a CEO, his job is to grow the business, not to code. That part is handled by the engineers that he hired. How many CEOs out there are also great programmers? Sure, I would prefer Sam Altman to have more technical depth given the business he is leading, but lack of technical…
My tinfoil hat is that Elon Musk is suing Sam Altman for control of OpenAI, and when you are the richest man on earth, you can afford a lot of money on hit pieces. Interestingly, the charge of "can barely code and frequently misunderstands technical concepts" is one that is often leveled at Elon Musk.
> My tinfoil hat is that Elon Musk is suing Sam Altman for control of OpenAI, and when you are the richest man on earth, you can afford a lot of money on hit pieces.
Altman is in a prime position to influence a potentially massively disruptive technology. There have been well-publicized doubts about his character since at least around the time he was fired from OpenAI. There was recently a very reputable and thoroughly-researched article on that topic.
You don't need a conspiracy. He's a public figure and a trending topic.
Re: Sam Altman's Coworkers Say He Can Barely Code and Misunderstands Basic Concepts
#40> I think there's a small but real chance he's eventually remembered as a Bernie Madoff What's with all the hit pieces on Sam Altman lately? He's a CEO, his job is to grow the business, not to code. That part is handled by the engineers that he hired. How many CEOs out there are also great programmers? Sure, I would prefer Sam Altman to have more technical depth given the business he is leading, but lack of technical…
Well there's the whole issue that Open AI wasn't a "business" when it started, it was in fact a non-profit focused on safe AGI for humanity. That said the whole "He's a CEO thing" is a convenient escape hatch now that it's a for-profit business (just ignore the whole way it got there). Just because you're a successful CEO doesn't mean you're not a shitty person or immune from so-called "hit pieces".
Yeah sure no one high profile is immune from hit pieces, and I'm not pretending Sam Altman is flawless. But I would want the attacks to be fair. OpenAI pivoting from their original business model is fair criticism. "Sam Altman doesn't know how to code, therefore he's the next Bernie Madoff" is not. Intellectually dishonest stuff like this doesn't belong on HN front page.