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Sam Altman's knack for dodging bullets with a little help from bigshot friends

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Re: Sam Altman's knack for dodging bullets with a little help from bigshot friends

#41

Post by kdwikzncba »

vorticalbox wrote: post #9
anotherhue wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gun jumping seems to be his style.

Not that I agree with this method but it's a pretty effective way to force something.

No, it's an attempt to force, and has the same flaw as all attempts to force, which is: the other side might just call your bluff.

"Oh you think that going ahead before a decision is made and just publish a post will get us to decide in your favor because we're afraid of looking like we're backtracking? How about we don't decide in your favor and delete your post? What you gonna do now?"

Re: Sam Altman's knack for dodging bullets with a little help from bigshot friends

#42

Post by stale2002 »

richbell wrote: post #8
gkoberger wrote: post #7

You don't have to like Sam. But people who do big things, by definition, have to get there by pushing things along at a cadence that differs from most other people. I'm not necessarily saying it's a good thing, but I don't get why every article about Sam seems to be surprised that the guy who helped build something nobody thought was possible (AI this decade) got there by doing things in a fast, unique way. If he fol…

This comment reminds me of when Bird's CEO described their intentional subversion of municipal legislation as "innovating on the regulatory front." A lot can be accomplished by skirting pesky rules and regulations. It isn't something commendable.

> A lot can be accomplished by skirting pesky rules and regulations. It isn't something commendable.

Well that depends.

Is the thing that is being accomplished very good and are the regulations bad?

For example, what if there is a law that was passed for the sole purpose of protecting a well connected monopoly, so that consumers have to pay more money, only so that this one monopoly could profit.

I'd say that such a law would be bad and should be under minded.

Re: Sam Altman's knack for dodging bullets with a little help from bigshot friends

#43

Post by kortilla »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #20
gkoberger wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he was brilliant and high agency, rather than a sociopath, what would be doing differently right now? The phrase "wheeler and dealer" rarely applies to people who have genuinely changed the world forever; why do you put him in that category when he clearly has had tangible results? Hey, if you don't like Sam, that's fine. But that doesn't make him a sociopath.

I don't know a lot about Sam Altman's history, but I do know that there is a lot of misattribution in tech circles away from the doers and toward the managers. Has he had significant tangible results, or has he managed people who have had those tangible results? This sort of misattribution seems to show up when you have individuals with sociopathic tendencies running firms that do cool things: Elon Musk is the king o…

SpaceX is Elon’s original work. There was no preexisting company there.

Re: Sam Altman's knack for dodging bullets with a little help from bigshot friends

#44

Post by nvy »

chongli wrote: post #37
nvy wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve Jobs was a massive piece of shit; not a good figure to worship.

Steve Jobs was a human being. No human should be worshipped. Like all human beings, he wasn't a one-dimensional character from a crappy sitcom. He had negative and positive traits. Whatever one feels about him personally, it is absolutely a mistake to dismiss him. What he achieved -- multiple times -- puts him in extremely rarified air in the business world.

[flagged]

Re: Sam Altman's knack for dodging bullets with a little help from bigshot friends

#45

Post by stale2002 »

richbell wrote: post #14
gkoberger wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a fallacy. You can't say "this other CEO did something" if you're trying to make a point about Sam. If you have a problem with Sam doing something illegal, say it. I'm not saying Sam has never done anything illegal, but most of the outrage seems to be that he doesn't follow social/business norms (not that he doesn't follow rules/regulations/laws).

> This is a fallacy. You can't say "this other CEO did something" if you're trying to make a point about Sam. If you have a problem with Sam doing something illegal, say it. There is nothing fallacious about my comment. Saying I'm not allowed to compare him to other CEOs is ridiculous. As another commenter said: he isn't unique.

> Saying I'm not allowed to compare him to other CEOs is ridiculous

You can compare him to other CEO but you have to justify why the comparison is valid.

You didn't do that.

If you want to directly claim that Sam did something illegal you need to show or say that.

Instead, what you did, is just point to someone else who did something illegal, and then criticize that other person, while vaguely implying that the criticism applies to Sam.

But the criticism doesn't apply to Sam, because you didn't demonstrate that Sam did anything illegal.

Re: Sam Altman's knack for dodging bullets with a little help from bigshot friends

#46

Post by BeefDinnerPurge »

kdwikzncba wrote: post #41
vorticalbox wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that I agree with this method but it's a pretty effective way to force something.

No, it's an attempt to force, and has the same flaw as all attempts to force, which is: the other side might just call your bluff. "Oh you think that going ahead before a decision is made and just publish a post will get us to decide in your favor because we're afraid of looking like we're backtracking? How about we don't decide in your favor and delete your post? What you gonna do now?"

[flagged]

Re: Sam Altman's knack for dodging bullets with a little help from bigshot friends

#47

Post by gumballindie »

jstummbillig wrote: post #15
gumballindie wrote: post #6

The more we learn about this person the more we understand how dubious he is. I am not entirely sure what the end game is for those protecting and promoting him. He’s clearly not steve jobs. Behaves and talks more like a cheap imitation.

Is the idea that Steve Jobs never strong armed anyone?

The idea is that steve jobs built something. And those promoting altman try to somehow make him look like steve. But altman built nothing, has no plan whatsoever, and is an impostor. I think even he knows it, which explains his attempts at making something stick - be it dodgy crypto, corrupt business deals, an ai that fails to live to its hype, and so on.

Re: Sam Altman's knack for dodging bullets with a little help from bigshot friends

#48

Post by BeefDinnerPurge »

gkoberger wrote: post #7

You don't have to like Sam. But people who do big things, by definition, have to get there by pushing things along at a cadence that differs from most other people. I'm not necessarily saying it's a good thing, but I don't get why every article about Sam seems to be surprised that the guy who helped build something nobody thought was possible (AI this decade) got there by doing things in a fast, unique way. If he fol…

It's less about not following the norms and more about not following the norms and doing so at a startup. Big companies know how to cut the tall poppies, it's a core corporate competency even.

Re: Sam Altman's knack for dodging bullets with a little help from bigshot friends

#49

Post by BeefDinnerPurge »

tester756 wrote: post #38
skullone wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's not unique, instead very textbook sociopath. Lines up with the alleged abuse of his younger sister too. There's not much more to him than a wheeler and dealer, self serving abuser.

Seriously? It feels like he just wants to do 10 things at the same time.

[flagged]

Re: Sam Altman's knack for dodging bullets with a little help from bigshot friends

#50

Post by bmitc »

hutzlibu wrote: post #21
gwern wrote: post #4

Many points of interest here, including the answer to an earlier HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38384090 Why were the YC posts about Altman stepping down as YC president & becoming chairman so confusingly edited, and Altman seems to have either never been chairman or have quickly left? Well, because his post lacked candor about him becoming YC chairman: "To smooth his exit, Altman proposed he mov…

Also this other bit was news to me: "Graham said it was his wife’s doing. “If anyone ‘fired’ Sam, it was Jessica, not me,” he said. “But it would be wrong to use the word ‘fired’ because he agreed immediately.” "

Why are these people so sycophantic, especially to such an inexperienced person?
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