Ask HN: What the Deal with Sam Altman | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What the Deal with Sam Altman

15 pointsapwell2311 comments

I've done hours and hours of research on this man but still couldn't find a single tangible accomplishment of his.

PG seem to have taken a liking to a teenage sam altman and elevated him into stratosphere with vacuous, and honestly very ridiculous, praises like he is 'micheal jordan of listening' or that he knew altman was the next bill gates within 3 minutes of meeting the teenager.

How in the world does a college dropout who hasn't built a thing in his life get 4% stake in stripe for $15k . I always thought PG essays were just boring but they now seem wildly hypocritical for all the huffing and puffing about 'meritocracy'.

Lots of my civilian friends seem to think he is the one building "AI" and were defending him to death when he got fired.

Whole thing is really bizzare (and creepy) to me. Why is SV ,and general public now, seem so enamored with this man. I don't get it.

View on HN

There's no doubt in my mind that Altman had the right skills to run Y Co at the time when he did.

Founders are frequently dreamers and speculators, they really should have a "reality distortion field" that will get investors, employees or customers on board. The best person to bring them out has to work in that space, being able to coach founders in doing that but they have to also avoid "getting high on their own supply", being able to build and maintain trust with a phenomenal number of stakeholders, etc.

I tried hard to pick the right word because I'm aiming for something that has positive and negative connotations. "Bullshitter" is too negative but gets to the heart of the balancing act Altman has maintained.

Charlatan comes to mind as maybe what you're looking for, but I don't know enough about Sam Altman to make that judgement on him.

> I don't know enough about Sam Altman

Looks like no one really does. All we see are incredibly vague and hand-wavy statements about his genius.

ChatGPT is for real even though its greatest talent is bullshitting and it oddly stole the thunder that cryptocurrencies had at a certain time as an imagined path to wealth for the ignorant and indolent.

Although I only trained in condensed matter physics, I find Helion very hard to believe

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-18/sam-altma...

That is, Helion has to build two fusion reactors that run under conditions much more intense than ITER, one to breed D + D -> He3 + n, another to burn D + He3 -> He4 + p. That first reaction can also go D + D -> T + p, the tritium is a really good fusion fuel but produces intense neutron radiation when you burn it. If you could suppress that branch you might have a very clean system.

Given how long it has taken the rest of the world to develop fusion I can't picture Helion developing anything practical in the next few years. Something like this could be the ideal energy source for interstellar travelers because you can find D in outer solar system bodies, comets and other interstellar objects, but we're getting ahead of ourselves to expect anything in the next few years.

(e.g. I want to see a billionaire fund https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_ion_fusion which, despite the need for a prototype system to be full scale, is the most realistic prospect for fusion energy, particularly if you want to burn something more difficult than D+T)

> I'm aiming for something that has positive and negative connotations.

My longtime business partner was this sort of personality and was the one who got investment money, distribution deals, and the like.

He referred to himself as a "glad-hander" or "marketing engineer". Between the two of us, he called himself the "outside man" (most of his work was outside the office talking to people and shaking their hands) and me the "inside man".

> "getting high on their own supply"

Thats actually seems to describe Sam himself from his statements like 'AI is going to solve all of physics' or that 'AI is going to clone his brain by 2027' .

What does he know about AI that rest of ppl in the know dont?

I do not believe your question is being asked in good faith, but I'll bite anyway.

Sam Altman is good at people and therefore striking up deals and obtaining funding. Say what you will about him. He's as deeply flawed as the rest of us. The difference is that the press is interested in him.

One tangible accomplishment, which should have come up in the first 10 minutes of your research is that he obtained billions in OpenAI funding from Microsoft. In fact, Sam has a long history of this[1]. He's also instrumentally helped several very well known startups to success.

You seem to think of him as something like a charlatan, but soft skills are just as important as technical skills. Do I have some questions about his ethics? Sure. But as to the question itself, there is irrefutable proof.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Altman#Career

so a 19yr old with no accomplishments to his name can raise 50mil for his startup and get 4% stake in stripe for 15k ?

All because he is 'good at people' ? Do you find your explanation satisfying, i don't. defies any common sense .

Not sure why you think this is 'bad faith'. i really want to know and gain insight into how these ppl operate.

  > so a 19yr old with no accomplishments to his name can raise 50mil for his startup and get 4% stake in stripe for 15k ?

Seems so. That's the story and I haven't seen an alternate explanation, let alone a convincing one.

  > All because he is 'good at people' ? Do you find your explanation satisfying, i don't. defies any common sense .

Yes, I stand by what I said. Soft skills make the world go round. Some people are naturally very exceptional with soft skills. What's your explanation?

  > Not sure why you think this is 'bad faith'.

Because your negative opinion of Altman is clear in your original question:

- "couldn't find a single tangible accomplishment of his"

- "elevated him into stratosphere with vacuous, and honestly very ridiculous, praises"

- "Whole thing is really bizzare (and creepy) to me"

  > i really want to know and gain insight into how these ppl operate.

Then you should approach it with an open mind. You seem to already have drawn conclusions to the very question you are asking. You don't need to have an opinion about everything.

> elevated him into stratosphere with vacuous, and honestly very ridiculous, praises

Yes as I mentioned in the post, I read articles from PG from that time which said things like he is 'Michael jordan of listening' or that he knew within 3 mins that sam is next bill gates. I don't know what to say if you don't find that utterly ridiculous or vacuous. And these are not cherry-picked quotes these are actually the better ones.

"he is just good" is circular and stupid explanation . accepting that doesn't indicate an "open mind" it indicates naivety (or another agenda) .

I am not ok with believing PG has some kind of meritocracy radar than can detect next bill gates in 3 mins of meeting someone. Call me closed minded.

op is now on the wanted list /s

Reply on news.ycombinator.com