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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
#312[deleted]
Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
I subscribe to the HN RSS feed, which shows flagged items since they're published on the feed before they're flagged. The craziest thing that stands out to me is how so many negative stories on Sam Altman end up being flagged, even though they are just as legit as the positive ones. I'm almost 100% certain that HN is highly manipulated for this story. For no other topic have I seen so many flagged stories, and all of…
This website is YCombinator. Sam was with YCombinator
We don't moderate HN according to that. I wrote extensively about this yesterday if anyone wants a verbose explanation:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38372059
Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor
#314Why are people so obsessed with this guy? Keep falling into the same trap of Cult of the Tech CEO
He was CEO of Y combinator, of which this forum is sponsored and maintained by.
He’s the CEO of OpenAI, which is responsible for the most-discussed advancement in technology for the past year. So it’s not that unusual for this to be discussed on a technology-focused forum.
He’s also the centre of a massive firestorm, where extremely atypical corporate behaviour was very recently taking place. Again, highly relevant topic for a forum that deals with startups.
In short, it’s news, and specifically news of interest to people on this site. No need for cults or obsession.
Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor
#315Why are people so obsessed with this guy? Keep falling into the same trap of Cult of the Tech CEO
Why do people watch pro sports? Why do we fall into the cult of the sports personality? Why do people follow movie stars? Because we’re human, and we gossip and obsess over high performers.
I was actually just thinking that I really miss the days when it was sports teams and athletes that people obnoxiously worshipped. Need to go back to Patriots fans being the most annoying people around.
Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor
#316Yeah, 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.
I subscribe to the HN RSS feed, which shows flagged items since they're published on the feed before they're flagged. The craziest thing that stands out to me is how so many negative stories on Sam Altman end up being flagged, even though they are just as legit as the positive ones. I'm almost 100% certain that HN is highly manipulated for this story. For no other topic have I seen so many flagged stories, and all of…
> For no other topic have I seen so many flagged stories, and all of them are the ones that paint Sam in a negative light
This isn't evaluating products for use with pluses and minuses.
Attacks on reputation need to be very, very well substantiated or they are libel (business libel in this case). It's also morally wrong, it leads to the worst kinds of resentful discussions, and frankly, this is not really the place for that if indeed you want justice.
In this case, the board made a decision that broke the reliance of all OpenAI stakeholders on Altman's leadership, with no evidence and little explanation. If OpenAI was transitioned properly and with due care to another CEO, it would have been business as usual.
Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor
#317I really liked the New Yorker portrait 'Sam Altman's Manifest Destiny': https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/10/sam-altmans-ma... It seemed to really get to the depths of his personality, both the impressive parts, and with some very subtle jabs.
I objected to his choice of Rickover as a role model in a FB comment thread and apparently he had a mutual friend with me so he jumped in complaining that the reporter hadn’t captured everything accurately (not quite to the point of “did me dirty”)
What's wrong with Rickover as a role model? If he'd been able to do for the civilian nuclear power sector what he did for the Navy, a lot of things would be a lot better now.
Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor
#318If Paul Graham fired Sam Altman from YCombinator it's interesting that he appears to have such a favourable opinion of him [0]. However, personally, what I've taken away from this is that he is a much better strategic/tactical operator than many other high-flying executives and very capable of winning the respect and trust of a lot of smart people. I wouldn't expect OpenAI to be run by anybody that wasn't revered in…
Paul's wife has a huge financial stake in OpenAI, so I suspect massive success there has softened his opinion.
Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor
#319If this is true, interesting, as PG was several times profits over ethics (e.G. see the AirBnB discussion on HN he participated in).
Re: Before OpenAI, Sam Altman was fired from Y Combinator by his mentor
#320I predict his character arch will be similar to Adam Neumann and Travis Kalanick - first the media gushes over him and praises him as a genius. Then the media starts to question him. Then they start to fully dig in and dig up a ton of dirt. With no mainstream outlet pushing forth the allegations his sister is claiming on social, I imagine right now they are looking under every rock on that end. I respect his hustle b…
I dislike the fact that he peddles the AGI angle too much. Literally, way above normal.
It would be nice to see him be down to Earth for a change and show some compassion but what do I know.. maybe those aren’t his strongest qualities.