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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

#191

Post by JumpCrisscross »

bhouston wrote: post #48
cma wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This endorsement of Sam from 2011 is actually pretty damning, though it is so long ago if it were the only thing it wouldn't be a huge red flag: >I just saw Sam Altman speak at YCNYC and I was impressed. I have never actually met him or heard him speak before Monday, but one of his stories really stuck out and went something like this: > "We were trying to get a big client for weeks, and they said no and went with a…

This is sort of par for the course in the world of early stage startups. No one wants to be your first customer as it is risky, but you need that first customer. So you "fake it until you make it." It is similar to dressing the part you want - at least when that mattered. You buy more expensive clothes than you should be able to afford so that people think you are more successful than you are, and then they are more…

> This is sort of par for the course in the world of early stage startups

It’s so par of the course that I’m willing to bet it didn’t happen.

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

#192

Post by alamod3 »

93po wrote: post #101
alwayslikethis wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't he also the one wanting to scan everyone's eyeballs?

you mean how google scans everyone's fingerprints and apple scans everyone's faces?

I think it is quite different though, in that biometric-as-a-device-authenticator features keep your biometric data on your device. The plan with worldcoin is to create a central database of this data.

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

#193

Post by bmitc »

ignoramous wrote: post #182
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.

Memetic thinking aside, Ilya signing that letter might have sealed it for them. Though, working for someone as formidable as sama in itself is a great pull, nevertheless.

> working for someone as formidable as sama

His name is Sam Altman. And why is he so formidable?

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

#195

Post by donsupreme »

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.

When Ilya signed the letter, most of the researchers would follow suit.

As for the rest of the non-researching roles, most of them were hired after Altman's expansion for commercial operation. The existence and future prospersity of their jobs rely on having someone like Altman to push for profitabilty/go-to-market vision.

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

#196

Post by aidenn0 »

patall wrote: post #34

> Another person familiar with Altman’s thinking said he was willing to meet with the board’s shortlist of proposed candidates, except for one person whom he declined on ethical grounds. Now you have me interested, who could that one person be? Charles Koch? Henry Kissinger? Because many of those I would normally have guessed are either in the article as possible collaborator (middle-easter connection) or is already…

Assuming he's as manipulative as the worst reports of him say, "ethical grounds" translates to "doesn't believe my lies"

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

#197

Post by kossTKR »

CPLX wrote: post #47
Solvency wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's strangely paradoxical. Sam has zero charisma. Zero looks. No technical ability. He's not a storyteller. He's not a hype man. He comes off as a mildly surly sloth when he talks. His actual pre-OpenAI achievements from a product perspective are a joke. But he was nevertheless "there" for YC and "there" in OpenAI, and a bunch of money was raised, and he's successfully managed to get all spotlights on him at all tim…

It’s actually much less confusing than that. It’s clear he has a knack for becoming a favorite son of billionaire oligarchs who see him as useful. Which, assuming he’s like everyone else who’s done that, was accomplished by a combination of flattery and willingness to operate on behalf of the ruling class totally untethered from any principles whatsoever.

It's pretty incredible that the upper echelons have so thoroughly psyopped everyone below them that the public runs confused around in an endless maze of ideology, false pretexts and stirred up drama.

This way only insiders recognise the most fundamental realpolitical power struggles of all ages; that the "very confusing" wars, coups or power grabs is not very complex at all but always - almost as a physical principle - stemming from the richest members of society pulling the strings to benefit themselves.

Then some note or some FOIA request will be released in 40 years about the orchestration and no one will care.

Just follow the money, or the networks of people and it's easy to see the undercurrents of class warfare, elite power via the security state or oligarch clubs siphoning money and power away from the public, but that's called conspiracy these days and is dangerous (to the ruling classes).

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

#198

Post by bcrosby95 »

Waterluvian wrote: post #113
kordlessagain wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm old enough to realize that I have no idea who someone is until I sit with them for a time, and even then I only have a slightly informed way of determining whether they are ethical and can be trusted. I've always said that in another country, like Germany, it might take time to get to know someone and, if you don't know them, you certainly shouldn't ask how they are doing. In the United States, we say hello and a…

I'm not completely sure if it works the same in the States as it does in Canada, but asking strangers/distant acquaintances how they're doing is never a real question. People aren't actually asking. You basically have 4 or 5 canned responses to supply from "great, you?" to "living the dream...", all of which don't say much. Any more and you're being a nuissance.

I always give a short candid response to those questions. Sometimes it brings follow up questions.

My wife says I should just always say good or great.

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

#199

Post by abadpoli »

tristor wrote: post #172
abadpoli wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of this was also your classic case of tech industry misogyny, too. There has been a lot of thinly veiled sexism in the discussions about Helen and Tasha vs Sam.

If you’re referring to discussing their qualifications to be on the board, I don’t think that is in any way driven by sexism. There were numerous comment threads discussing the qualifications of all the board members and these two stood out as being specifically unqualified, and D’Angelo stood out for having clear conflicts of interest. Given how the board handled this whole situation like an amateur hour shit show,…

> defending them because they’re women

There’s absolutely nothing in my comment that even implies I’m defending them and their actions, and also absolutely nothing in my comment that implies any of my statement is based on their gender.

I seem to have struck a nerve with you, though. I think the commenter doth protest too much.

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

#200

Post by play_ac »

bhouston wrote: post #185
hef19898 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on what financial statements do we know FTX was profitable? Also, the stole customer funds.

> Based on what financial statements do we know FTX was profitable? The crypto-exchange part I have read many times it was profitable. Running an exchange is a profitable endeavour as you just take a cut of all transactions. As long as you control your costs it is a money printer. The rest of FTX was full of fraud and Alameda was a money sink via unprofitable speculation. Also likely helping laundry money as well via…

No, crypto exchanges are only profitable as a result of massive wash trading and scamming. If they had to actually compete the margins would be hilariously low. Probably even lower than a typical bank because the product is just worse.
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