Sam Altman's knack for dodging bullets with a little help from bigshot friends

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Dec 25, 2023, 1:11 AM UTC

bmitc wrote: post #99

adventured wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the accomplishments of OpenAI represent that in action. It's an exceptional outcome to say the least. If everybody could do it, they would be doing it. Altman's abilities are every bit as rare as that of a 10x software developer. The same was true of Jobs, and the same is true of Musk (regardless of whether someone likes him or not; who cares if he's likable, it's an infantile emotional derangement to obsess so…

> Yes, the accomplishments of OpenAI represent that in action. It's an exceptional outcome to say the least. What specifically backs that up? Didn't others create the technology? Is it that hard to hire and organize when you've got a top researcher that everyone wants to work with? By many accounts, he was just using OpenAI to further other businesses and investments.

Post by pclmulqdq » Mon, Dec 25, 2023, 1:31 AM UTC

Timber-6539 wrote: post #79

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why does he have such broad support? He makes people money. Plenty of terrible people commanded great loyalty. All the loyalty tells you is he’s a good leader. Not where he’s leading us. (Not saying anything about Sam. Just pointing out that loyalty is orthogonal.)

He should be making investors money. That's his #1 job. Aside from that, who cares about loyalty to the CEO of a tech company. He's a replaceable employee and OpenAI should be able to continue without him. What were his actual crimes. It's not clear from the previous board nor anyone who's spoken about the matter what those were.

Post by sumedh » Mon, Dec 25, 2023, 2:24 AM UTC

Timber-6539 wrote: post #79

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why does he have such broad support? He makes people money. Plenty of terrible people commanded great loyalty. All the loyalty tells you is he’s a good leader. Not where he’s leading us. (Not saying anything about Sam. Just pointing out that loyalty is orthogonal.)

He should be making investors money. That's his #1 job. Aside from that, who cares about loyalty to the CEO of a tech company. He's a replaceable employee and OpenAI should be able to continue without him. What were his actual crimes. It's not clear from the previous board nor anyone who's spoken about the matter what those were.

Post by darkwraithcov » Mon, Dec 25, 2023, 2:43 AM UTC

adventured wrote: post #91

lacrimacida wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But even all Wozzes out there who met their Jobs are still relegated to just Wozzes, all credit being vaccumed up by their respective Jobs. Not saying that their Jobs don’t deserve any the credit, i’m just pointing out the unfair pattern of how all the credit is being vaccumed up. One clearly needs the other but it doesn’t look like a two way street at all.

It's not unfair in the case of Jobs & Woz. Wozniak represented a few years of Apple's earliest history. His contribution was similar to Paul Allen's contribution to Microsoft. Extraordinarily important in the first few years, and that was the end of that. The reality is, people broadly like Woz, and particularly among the HN crowd Steve Jobs is disliked; that's the explanation, it's purely emotional; so they want to…

Post by Timber-6539 » Mon, Dec 25, 2023, 3:11 AM UTC

pclmulqdq wrote: post #143

Timber-6539 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He should be making investors money. That's his #1 job. Aside from that, who cares about loyalty to the CEO of a tech company. He's a replaceable employee and OpenAI should be able to continue without him. What were his actual crimes. It's not clear from the previous board nor anyone who's spoken about the matter what those were.

OpenAI is a nonprofit. Making investors money is explicitly off the table, despite how much Sam Altman wants that to change.