61–70 of 93 posts
It all comes down to being in the right network. When his Loopt startup failed he had to be in the right network to fail upwards. Most people lack that network. I think the IQ and the hard work bits are common.
Should a prerequisite to every successful tech person advice list include "Be 99th percentile IQ or higher"? All these people go to schools and work environments where they exclusively interact with incredibly intelligent people. Do they really know just how mediocre the average person is? Or is the average person implicitly written off with respect to any sort of prodigious success.
Can you list one invention or idea that Sam has had that requires 99th percentile IQ?
It all comes down to being in the right network. When his Loopt startup failed he had to be in the right network to fail upwards. Most people lack that network. I think the IQ and the hard work bits are common.
Yeah, luck and opportunity is generally bestowed upon you by someone else not generated out of thin air.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, luck and opportunity is generally bestowed upon you by someone else not generated out of thin air.
"Befriend generous benefactors who like you" is good, but hard to action, advice. Equally, be prepared to look past failings of the same folks.
Here's something these posts never touch on: dealing with the inevitable routine and the boredom that comes with it. You always read that life is short, seize the moment, etc. and I call BS. I like to think I did all that, I'm well under 40 and have really travelled the world, succeeded professionally, lived in 10 countries, did everything I ever wanted to do. And now what? The problem with achieving things is that y…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does that make his journey any less valid?
For himself? No. But, a lot of this advice like “take risks” is much easier to do when your failures don’t result in losing everything. If a poor person starts a business and fails they might not be able to afford to eat. If Sam Altman failed would he have been pushed to a similar place on the socioeconomic ladder? My guess is no. It’s much easier to fail when your failure state is that you can rely on your well off…
Here's something these posts never touch on: dealing with the inevitable routine and the boredom that comes with it. You always read that life is short, seize the moment, etc. and I call BS. I like to think I did all that, I'm well under 40 and have really travelled the world, succeeded professionally, lived in 10 countries, did everything I ever wanted to do. And now what? The problem with achieving things is that y…
The thing that changed this for me is, no joke, having kids. This brought me away from the feeling that life is fleeting with little point to the minuscule things I may accomplish and showed me a grander scale. As an engineer, I'll never be a Maxwell, Shannon, etc., but I can raise the generation to come in a way that - though I may never know it - could have an incredible influence on the world.
Here's something these posts never touch on: dealing with the inevitable routine and the boredom that comes with it. You always read that life is short, seize the moment, etc. and I call BS. I like to think I did all that, I'm well under 40 and have really travelled the world, succeeded professionally, lived in 10 countries, did everything I ever wanted to do. And now what? The problem with achieving things is that y…