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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

#231

Post by BeetleB »

cma wrote: post #30
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 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…

What am I missing? The worst sin is trying to look bigger than they are?

You should listen to How I Built This. Tricks like this when starting out are pretty common, be it unicorn startups or personal businesses. So common that founders are openly willing to admit to it on public radio. In almost all cases, both parties came out better. It's not as if the client is at all upset at this "fraudulent" behavior.

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

#232

Post by norir »

dmix wrote: post #147
antisthenes wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

These people are at the top of the AI industry, they’d make bank in a ton of jobs if they left tomorrow. They weren’t getting equity at Microsoft yet they still chose that opportunity as an alternative. Clearly they care about working on the most interesting AI around instead of continuing to work under a CEO and board whose whole plan is to cripple AI development. Both the interim CEO Shear and likely coup leader To…

> These people are at the top of the AI industry, they’d make bank in a ton of jobs if they left tomorrow.

I know a signatory of the letter and I can assure you that they were nowhere near the top of the AI industry six months ago.

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

#233

Post by gizajob »

henry_viii wrote: post #135
gizajob wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I meant the dark triad personality traits, more than borrowing from The Prince.

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

#234

Post by tristor »

Philpax wrote: post #219
tristor wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suggest you reread your comment then. You claimed the only reason people questioned their qualifications was sexism.

They never said the word "only" or implied it.

They did not explicitly say it, it was definitely implied, since their entire comment was to claim that is was misogyny and sexism that were the motivations for commenters questioning these board members qualifications. I invite folks to actually look into qualifications of all of the board members, unless it's changed they're on the OpenAI website.

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

#235

Post by CPLX »

kossTKR wrote: post #197
CPLX wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 principl…

Yeah this stuff isn't rocket science. If you shut the fuck up and play along and don't make people uncomfortable you get a kitchen renovation and a vacation home and a job for your kid. It's the oldest game there is.

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

#236

Post by Philpax »

tristor wrote: post #234
Philpax wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They never said the word "only" or implied it.

They did not explicitly say it, it was definitely implied, since their entire comment was to claim that is was misogyny and sexism that were the motivations for commenters questioning these board members qualifications. I invite folks to actually look into qualifications of all of the board members, unless it's changed they're on the OpenAI website.

> I think part of this

> There has been a lot of thinly veiled sexism

No, they didn't imply it, and they didn't claim it was the primary motivation. They just said it was a contributor. You are perceiving a stronger claim than they made.

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

#237

Post by tristor »

Philpax wrote: post #236
tristor wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They did not explicitly say it, it was definitely implied, since their entire comment was to claim that is was misogyny and sexism that were the motivations for commenters questioning these board members qualifications. I invite folks to actually look into qualifications of all of the board members, unless it's changed they're on the OpenAI website.

> I think part of this > There has been a lot of thinly veiled sexism No, they didn't imply it, and they didn't claim it was the primary motivation. They just said it was a contributor. You are perceiving a stronger claim than they made.

It's literally the only claim they made. There were no alternatives, so of course it's perceived and implied to be the strongest claim.

They said what they said, trying to weasel out of it doesn't make the case.

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

#238

Post by thimkerbell »

jorater wrote: post #156

From Garry Tan ~2 Months ago: https://twitter.com/garrytan/status/1702561008190165448 > The scariest sociopaths are the ones you let in to your house, who met your family, who you broke bread with > ... In a comment: > Just heard some disturbing news about someone who I once thought highly of

I would like to message jorater warning him about drawing conclusions from a subtweet when there's deviousness afoot, but hacker news doesn't have that feature.

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

#239

Post by someperson »

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…

Henry Kissinger is 100 years old

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

#240

Post by jakderrida »

imjonse wrote: post #73
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.

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.

> 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.

In other words, they believed in his leadership, direction, and ability to serve their interests more than they believed in the board's.

I don't understand why so many people are performing mental gymnastics attempting to turn the unanimous support behind him into somehow being evidence that he's the antichrist. Why wouldn't the employees act in their own self-interest? What's wrong with them acting in their own self-interest? I would assume all employees everywhere, more or less, act in their own self-interest and I don't think that makes them or their preferred leadership evil incarnate.

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