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Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

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Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

#131

Post by mandmandam »

93po wrote: post #109
mandmandam wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worldcoin alone is so, so damning of his character. Cartoon villain shit. It's hard to square that whole thing with the way people talk about him here. But every once in a while it hits; this is the guy who wanted to collect everyone's bloody retina pattern, all for a crypto so obviously bad in nearly every fundamental aspect.

their long term project doesn't save or store retina patterns in any way. they store of a hash of it that is mathematically impossible to reverse. it's clear you wildly misunderstand how this works, i would encourage you to go learn more. i'd also welcome you to explain how the crypto side of it is bad in comparison to other uses of blockchains

I don't know what the gaps in your knowledge are to not see Worldcoin as a scam. And I'm not being paid to find out.

But it's a fuckin scam. It's exploitative, and sleazy as fuck. It uses crappy blockchain tech, the orbs are proprietary, and you really ought to think twice before condescending at people who try to help you out on this.

Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

#132

Post by sigmar »

hutzlibu wrote: post #27
sertbdfgbnfgsd wrote: post #12

Yeah, the craziest thing for me to come out of this was how everyone in HN just assumed he was "innocent". Poor poor sam altman, he's a victim. He comes across as a sleazebag to me.

"how everyone in HN just assumed he was "innocent"." My impression was rather a overwhelmingly "wtf is going on?" edit: I still don't know enough, to judge anyone involved

People love to see things in black and white without nuance, "oh you think the board should reverse the decision, that must mean you think Altman was innocent and should never be fired!". My read was that most people here (at least on sunday and monday) viewed the board as making major missteps, that doesn't mean all of HN is "team sam"

Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

#133

Post by johnbellone »

tcgv wrote: post #122
al_borland wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it hard to believe this was the kind of environment he was cultivating at OpenAI if 95% of the staff were ready to follow him out the door. I've worked for the type of people you mention and no one followed them when they leave. 95% threatening to leave in this case is hard to ignore.

> 95% of the staff were ready to follow him out the door. I'd rephrase that to: - "95% of the staff were ready to follow him and join Microsoft" Amid so much confusion and uncertainty, the prospect of joining Microsoft through an acquihire would appear quite appealing and like the safest choice. This sentiment is strengthened considering the team's approval of Sam's leadership.

I don't work there, but can guarantee that 100% of the staff wanted to be paid. They're going to follow the person that is going to make them generational wealth.

Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

#134

Post by antisthenes »

Kiro wrote: post #81
imjonse wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can believe the staff likes or even loves him, but the following him part was mostly because of money/shares and because they know he's influential and well connected to people with money. And peer pressure may have had a part in that letter signing. You don't want to be on the side of the losers if Altman gets his way.

> mostly because of money/shares How do you know?

Occam's razor.

Maybe the simplest explanation isn't the right one for 100% of the people that followed Sam (or were ready to), but it's the right one for 90% of them, which is what matters for practical purposes.

Follow the money.

Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

#135

Post by henry_viii »

gizajob wrote: post #45
fvdessen wrote: post #9

I've had the 'chance' to work with some deeply manipulative persons in the past, the kind who goes to your desk and say 'Hey, I noticed you started to speak to X again, and your performance seems to suffer as a result", where X is a friendly colleague that opposed some plan of that person. It is incredibly difficult to keep those people in check as all that behaviour is off the record and impossible to prove. When pe…

This whole saga whiffs of Machiavellianism

> as Machiavelli said:

>> Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.

https://blog.samaltman.com/value-is-created-by-doing

Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

#136

Post by theGnuMe »

xrd wrote: post #20
helsinkiandrew wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hadn't seen the tweet from Geoffrey Irving before: https://twitter.com/geoffreyirving/status/172675427022402397... > 1. He was always nice to me. > 2. He lied to me on various occasions > 3. He was deceptive, manipulative, and worse to others, including my close friends (again, only nice to me, for reasons)

It's a very strongly worded statement. Given how connected Altman is, it's very interesting that Irving would publicly state this. It's either very courageous and in service to changing silicon valley, or also very manipulative and in service of benefiting his company. It feels like it could be both. I'm left feeling like there are no angels here. (That's actually funny given how investors love to call themselves ang…

You've got a few billionaire teams in silicon valley not unlike say the NFL.

Team DeepMind Team Google Team Meta Team YC Team OpenAI Team Microsoft Team nVIDIA Team VC Team Thiel

There are probably more...

Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

#137

Post by [deleted] »

gizajob wrote: post #45
fvdessen wrote: post #9

I've had the 'chance' to work with some deeply manipulative persons in the past, the kind who goes to your desk and say 'Hey, I noticed you started to speak to X again, and your performance seems to suffer as a result", where X is a friendly colleague that opposed some plan of that person. It is incredibly difficult to keep those people in check as all that behaviour is off the record and impossible to prove. When pe…

This whole saga whiffs of Machiavellianism

[deleted]

Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

#138

Post by ctvo »

al_borland wrote: post #44
fvdessen wrote: post #9

I've had the 'chance' to work with some deeply manipulative persons in the past, the kind who goes to your desk and say 'Hey, I noticed you started to speak to X again, and your performance seems to suffer as a result", where X is a friendly colleague that opposed some plan of that person. It is incredibly difficult to keep those people in check as all that behaviour is off the record and impossible to prove. When pe…

I find it hard to believe this was the kind of environment he was cultivating at OpenAI if 95% of the staff were ready to follow him out the door. I've worked for the type of people you mention and no one followed them when they leave. 95% threatening to leave in this case is hard to ignore.

> I find it hard to believe this was the kind of environment he was cultivating at OpenAI if 95% of the staff were ready to follow him out the door.

I work for a startup that's on the cusp of having an exit event valued at 70 billion dollars. Drama within the board, who I have no connection with, has reduced the probability of that happening to 0. There's a chance another company will hire me and my co-workers and match our total compensation in liquid stocks we can actually sell.

It's really hard to imagine why I or anyone else would sign a letter that turns back the decision impacting the exit event or join the company that'll actually let me cash out the equity portion of my compensation. It definitely reflects my feelings for the CEO and not my own self interest.

Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

#139

Post by saiya-jin »

seanthemon wrote: post #105
oldtownroad wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OpenAI is more religion than company. Sam could be a deeply flawed leader and still have extreme loyalty due to what OpenAI has achieved under his leadership. The people at OpenAI are believers in a mission and that means they’re far more likely to allow personal failings to slide. He’s more a Musk figure than a whoever-the-ceo-of-McDonald’s-is figure.

do you have evidence to back this up?

I don't think its necessary to prove anything he says, the keyword is 'could'. We don't know, and people who actually do don't spill it on HN just because we would like them to.

These are generic statements about cult-like leaders, Musk is a prime example. Its hard won affection, not just smooth BS, we here all know that.

That being said, people generally don't change, just situations (barring some catastrophic accidents or similar). Whatever actions given person did in the past describe them well enough in present. Again, generic but IMHO always valid so far.

Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor

#140

Post by objektif »

antisthenes wrote: post #134
Kiro wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> mostly because of money/shares How do you know?

Occam's razor. Maybe the simplest explanation isn't the right one for 100% of the people that followed Sam (or were ready to), but it's the right one for 90% of them, which is what matters for practical purposes. Follow the money.

Of course. I mean come on you may love the guy but your primary reason for following him will still be money. Why would you want your years of work to go down to 0$?
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