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Reflections on OpenAI

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Re: Reflections on OpenAI

#391

Post by Xenoamorphous »

pegasus wrote: post #387
Xenoamorphous wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, when I became a parent I was in for the full ride, not to have someone else raising her. Yes, raising includes changing diapers and all that.

You make it sound like your choice is somehow the righteous one. I'm not convinced. What's wrong with a hiring help, as long as it's well selected? And anyway, usually the help would take care of various errands to free up mom so she can focus on her baby. But maybe they have happily involved grandparents. Maybe he was working part-time. Or maybe there's some other factor we're completely missing on right now.

So you sincerely think it’s ok that everybody takes care of the kid but the father because he’s rich and can afford multiple nannies? There’s not much context to miss when TFA has this:

> The Codex sprint was probably the hardest I've worked in nearly a decade. Most nights were up until 11 or midnight. Waking up to a newborn at 5:30 every morning. Heading to the office again at 7a. Working most weekends.

Re: Reflections on OpenAI

#392

Post by kridsdale1 »

Xenoamorphous wrote: post #294
m00x wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calvin cofounded Segment that had a $3.2B acquisition. He's not your typical employee.

So this guy is filthy rich and yet decided to grind for 14 months with a newborn at home? I guess that's why he's filthy rich.

I had a chance to join OpenAI 13 months ago too.

But I had a son 14 months ago.

There was absolutely no way I was going to miss any of a critical part in my baby’s life in order to be in an office at 2am managing a bad deployment.

Maybe I gave up my chance at PPU or RSU riches. But I know I chose a different kind of wealth that can never be replaced.

Re: Reflections on OpenAI

#393

Post by taylorlapeyre »

billmcneale wrote: post #262
maest wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar to Pascal's wager, which pretty much amounts to "yeah, God is probably not real, _but what if it is_? The utility of getting into heaven is infinite (and hell is infinitely negative), so any non-zero probability that God is real should make you be religious, just in case." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s_wager#Analysis_with...

I am convinced! Which god should I believe in, though? There are so many. And what if I pick the wrong god?

Any God, as long as it's not a being/creature. Thankfully there's only one of those! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_theism

Re: Reflections on OpenAI

#394

Post by kridsdale1 »

foobarian wrote: post #372
teiferer wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Way to go to keep the boring chores of the first months with the partner and join the fun when the little one starts to be more fun after a year. With all that cash, I'm sure they could buy a bunch of help for the partner too.

Yeah, or, let the partner have the easy period before they are mobile, and when they sleep half the day, and then join the fun when they can walk off into the craft supplies/pantry where sugar/flour/etc. are stored/the workshop with the power tools etc., and when they drop the naptime and instead start waking at 5am and asking you to play Roblox with them. Either option is priceless :-)

I just went through this period.

I would not describe it as easy.

Re: Reflections on OpenAI

#395

Post by kridsdale1 »

adastra22 wrote: post #268
ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7 wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were showered with assets for being a lucky individual in a capital driven society, time is interchangeable for wealth, as evidenced throughout history. This guy is young. He can experience all that again, if it is that much of a failure, and he really wants to. Sure, there are ethical issues here, but really, they can be offset by restitution, lets be honest.

He cannot experience time with his kid again. In any case he's on a fast track to divorce rn.

What a fabulous payout she is in for.

Re: Reflections on OpenAI

#396

Post by stickfigure »

rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #376
TeMPOraL wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may very well be the case. But I think this is a distinct category of evil; the second one, in which you'll find most of the cigarette and gambling businesses, is that of evil caused by indifference . "Yes, I agree there are some downsides to our product and there are some people suffering because of that - but no one is forcing them to buy from us, they're people with agency and free will, they can act as adult…

It's not indifference, it's much more comically evil. Like, they're using software to identify gambling addicts on fixed incomes, to figure out how big retirees' social security checks are, and to ensure they lose the entire thing at the casino each week. They bonus out their marketing team for doing this successfully. They're using software to make sure that when a casino host's patron runs out of money and kills th…

I wouldn't know if this is a fair characterization of other companies, but it certainly isn't anything like what I observe here. If you can't name names, I'm going to guess you just made this up.

Re: Reflections on OpenAI

#397

Post by ToucanLoucan »

motbus3 wrote: post #307
teiferer wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Way to go to keep the boring chores of the first months with the partner and join the fun when the little one starts to be more fun after a year. With all that cash, I'm sure they could buy a bunch of help for the partner too.

There are certain experiences in life that one needs to go through so you keep grounded to what really matters.

The people who will disagree with this statement would say, full throated, that what really mattered was shipping on time.

Couldn't be me. I do my work, then clock the fuck off, and I don't even have kids. I wasn't put upon this earth to write code or solve bugs, I just do that for the cash.

Re: Reflections on OpenAI

#398

Post by stickfigure »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #303
stickfigure wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am of the opinion that the greatest evils come from the most self-righteous.

That may very well be the case. But I think this is a distinct category of evil; the second one, in which you'll find most of the cigarette and gambling businesses, is that of evil caused by indifference . "Yes, I agree there are some downsides to our product and there are some people suffering because of that - but no one is forcing them to buy from us, they're people with agency and free will, they can act as adult…

Some people like to smoke. I find it disgusting myself, but as long as people want the experience I see no reason why someone else shouldn't be allowed to sell it to them. See also alcohol, drugs, porn, motorcycles, experimental aircraft, whatever.

We can have all sorts of interesting discussions about how to balance human independence with shared social costs, but it's not inherently "evil" to give consenting adults products and experiences they desire.

IMO, much more evil is caused by busybodies trying to tell other people what's good for them. See: The Drug War.

Re: Reflections on OpenAI

#399

Post by J_Shelby_J »

uh_uh wrote: post #297
lz400 wrote: post #185

Engineers thinking they're building god is such a good marketing strategy. I can't overstate it. It's even difficult to be rational about it. I don't actually believe it's true, I think it's pure hype and LLMs won't even approximate AGI. But this idea is sort of half-immune to criticism or skepticism: you can always respond with "but what if it's true?". The stakes are so high that the potentially infinite payoff sno…

> I don't actually believe it's true, I think it's pure hype and LLMs won't even approximate AGI. Not sure how you can say this so confidently. Many would argue they're already pretty close, at least on a short time horizon.

Many would argue that you should give them a billion dollars funding, and that’s what they’re doing when they say AGI is close.

There is a decade + worth of implementation details and new techniques to invent before we have something functionally equivalent to Jarvis.

Re: Reflections on OpenAI

#400

Post by ml-anon »

m00x wrote: post #385
ml-anon wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incredible that you've managed to post this from the 1950's

No, he's right. I just went through newborn phase right now and the only person that needed is mom. Kid wanted nothing to do with me. He just wanted food and sleep.

Your poor partner.
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