Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

581–590 of 798 posts

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

#581

Post by bambax »

tomnipotent wrote: post #527
bambax wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if this counts as selling, though. Selling is making you want to buy the car, agreeing on a price and filling in the paperwork. Trying to extract more money from you after you have agreed on a price is... extorsion? Fraud? But not just "selling".

It's negotiation, which is absolutely selling. The dealership was counting on me accepting the price hike because the car I wanted was rare and in-demand, and I had already made some commitment to the process by filling out initial paperwork. I knew a manager still needed to approve the terms, but the sales rep made it sound like it was certain. Turns out this is an incredibly common car sales tactic, enough so that…

If anything happens after we shake hands, I walk. Paperwork or not; book or no book.

I don't question the (un)fairness of it, or the game; just the name.

Your guy sounds like Jerry Lundegaard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2LLB9CGfLs

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

#582

Post by whatshisface »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #412
whatshisface wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You want companies to post the reasons for every firing on Twitter?

No. But if you are going to make a statement, it behooves you to fill it with substance.

That's not how board press release are. I can't help but feel everyone is using Twitter rules to study a corporate game.

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

#583

Post by johnnyworker »

dwaltrip wrote: post #279
fevangelou wrote: post #96

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…

Is there any major news reporting on the Annie Altman stuff? That looks like front page material to me.

from the second link:

> Besides Elizabeth Weil's nymag article (here), there has been virtually zero (mainstream) media coverage of the extremely serious claims that Annie has consistently made many, many times against Sam Altman over the past 4 years.

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

#584

Post by lovich »

mihaic wrote: post #570
unethical_ban wrote: post #566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is laughably naive or frustratingly bad faith to think abusive cops are similar to incompatible business partners.

Not to me, when those "business partners" are in charge of some agencies like YC that do influence the society we live in.

If I didn’t know I was on HN I would after a comment like this.

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

#585

Post by jeromegv »

theschmed wrote: post #489
twoodfin wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird: The most relevant hn post on Altman’s departure from YC is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19342184 But despite comments to the effect that the YC post indicated Sam’s departure, it doesn’t seem to say anything about it right now?

Nor in 2022 when it was first archived by Wayback (unless archives from previous have been removed) https://web.archive.org/web/20230000000000*/https://www.ycom...

They actually changed the URL structure

This is the old URL, and they indeed mentioned Sam leaving https://web.archive.org/web/20190316222853/https://blog.ycom...

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

#586

Post by dang »

twoodfin wrote: post #431
greatNespresso wrote: post #270

It came as a surprise for me to learn that PG fired Sam. It's the first time that I read this actually, and if that's true, I find it kind of mysterious that it remained a secret for so long. Or maybe I missed the news somehow but I could not find any other mention of that event on Google.

Weird: The most relevant hn post on Altman’s departure from YC is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19342184 But despite comments to the effect that the YC post indicated Sam’s departure, it doesn’t seem to say anything about it right now?

I'm pretty sure the HN thread hasn't changed, but you're right, the YC post has: https://web.archive.org/web/20190310042303/https://blog.ycom.... One could bisect to find out where. Weird! I've never known these things to change like that, and it's not as if the news wasn't already public.

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

#587

Post by WendyTheWillow »

woooooo wrote: post #563
WendyTheWillow wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you must not think the job is difficult or impactful, as well.

That doesn't necessarily follow. Lots of people have difficult jobs. Line cooks have to make priority decisions under high pressure, and it's impactful.

A line cook is comparably difficult and impactful a job as a fortune 500 CEO?

Say more.

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

#588

Post by kevinmchugh »

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…

Condoleeza Rice?

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

#589

Post by throwaway_xghd »

twoodfin wrote: post #431
greatNespresso wrote: post #270

It came as a surprise for me to learn that PG fired Sam. It's the first time that I read this actually, and if that's true, I find it kind of mysterious that it remained a secret for so long. Or maybe I missed the news somehow but I could not find any other mention of that event on Google.

Weird: The most relevant hn post on Altman’s departure from YC is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19342184 But despite comments to the effect that the YC post indicated Sam’s departure, it doesn’t seem to say anything about it right now?

The statement about Sam on the announcement post at https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/updates-from-yc/ evolved over time:

1. March 2019: "Sam is transitioning to Chairman of YC and has shifted his operational responsibilities at YC to other partners. This change will allow Sam to spend more time focusing on OpenAI while still being responsible, along with the rest of the partnership, for the long-term social and economic success of YC. Because YC is run as a partnership, there will be no significant operational change."

2. June 2020: "In May 2019, Geoff Ralston took over as YC President. At that time, Sam Altman stepped away from any formal position at YC."

3. April 2021: gone entirely

waybackmachine: https://web.archive.org/web/20190310003417/https://blog.ycom...

Basically seems like they were updating it as leadership turnover happened as Sam went from president to chair to out, and Geoff from partner to president to out.

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

#590

Post by pests »

Waterluvian wrote: post #460
pests wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it though? When the fact is subjective to begin with? I would even say “Roy Sullivan is the best in the world at being struck by lightning” is not a fact at all but an opinion. And by giving an opinion you are passing judgement. How can you claim saying something such as "Washington was the best president" is in some way a fact? Can you find it in reference books? Is it defined from the laws of nature? Does anyone…

He held the world record, so I’m comfortable saying he was the best at it. If that’s not sufficient and we’re interested in being a semantic pedantic, that’s not a discussion that interests me.

Still an opinion, sorry.
Post reply on HN