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

washingtonpost.com

341–350 of 798 posts

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

#341

If this is true, interesting, as PG was several times profits over ethics (e.G. see the AirBnB discussion on HN he participated in).

It is somewhat different. AirBnB founder Nathan Blecharczyk was not shopping around, but rather at some point he was the largest spammer in USA, where even FBI was interested in his dealings. Interestingly, the 3 articles I was able to find on this subject some 5 years ago (and posted to HN at some point) from major news outlets, are all gone now.

I think hurting your own business versus being a scumbag scammer will get you much different treatment, even from PG.

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

#342

It's oh so weird the article does not mention any of these though... - https://twitter.com/phuckfilosophy/status/163570439893983232... (SA's sister - also have a look at her recent posts) - Also: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QDczBduZorG4dxZiW/sam-altman... (utterly distressing) - https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1727096607752282485 (check the comment with snapshots of the letter - "strangely" that Gist was dele…

Elon is incredibly jealous of Sam. That is why he posted the gist.

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

#343

CEOs are professional communicators who have reached the highest level of the craft, they use their communications to achieve an end, expressing their inner selves is not the point. You might know a great kind person who is a car salesman, when they are at work a good one comes off as genuine and friendly, the things they're saying include many truths, but their words and actions are primarily designed to sell cars.…

> CEOs are professional communicators who have reached the highest level of the craft

Elon Musk has entered the chat...

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

#344

> One of those people whose career Altman helped propel was Ilya Sutskever, chief scientist and board member at OpenAI — the person who ultimately fired him. Ilya was plenty successful before OpenAI and would've been just fine without Altman helping to "propel" his career.

Why did he sign the letter and post:

>I deeply regret my participation in the board's actions. I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we've built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company.

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

#345
post #291
post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno, man. As an English person, to me these tweets sound a lot like he is publicly calling Altman a cunt.

Really? It seems like a glowing appraisal. He seems to think that Sam is devestatingly effective at what he does.

They all say he's good at what he does, but none of them actually sound like he likes the guy.

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

#347

CEOs are professional communicators who have reached the highest level of the craft, they use their communications to achieve an end, expressing their inner selves is not the point. You might know a great kind person who is a car salesman, when they are at work a good one comes off as genuine and friendly, the things they're saying include many truths, but their words and actions are primarily designed to sell cars.…

> CEOs are professional communicators who have reached the highest level of the craft Elon Musk has entered the chat...

I think he's gone a little more "experimental" and Avant Garde in his practice of the art. /s

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

#348
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…

Remember BillG sold an OS to IBM for the Intel 8086 that was not even owned or written by Microsoft at the time.

And somewhat ringing of these current events, his mom was on a charity board with the head of IBM.

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

#349

Step 1: Dazzle an influential person Step 2: Persuade them to hitch their reputation to you Step 3: Do whatever you want with minimal repercussions Follow these 3 steps and influential people will actively fight on your behalf, against their own best interests, to avoid embarrassing themselves and diminishing their reputations. Use each influential person as a stepping stone to an even more influential person and rep…

Or, when you fire people, have a clear reason for it. Not being "consistently candid" is not that.

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

#350

Step 1: Dazzle an influential person Step 2: Persuade them to hitch their reputation to you Step 3: Do whatever you want with minimal repercussions Follow these 3 steps and influential people will actively fight on your behalf, against their own best interests, to avoid embarrassing themselves and diminishing their reputations. Use each influential person as a stepping stone to an even more influential person and rep…

Trust your gut. No one here has a good story about "Sam I Am".
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