Strong principled stance until the valuations got big (helped in no small measure by the principled stance)…and then backtracked it when everyone saw the riches there for the taking with a little let’s call it reframing
There had never been one. Not with Sam Altman. It was a play put on to get $100+ million in donations. This was always the goal, from day 0. This is trivially obvious considering the person Sam Altman.
Anyone who thought Sam Altman wasn’t in it for the money from the start, was being naive. In the extreme. Not only Mr Altman, but most of the people giving the larger donations were hoping for a hit as well. Why is that so incredible to people? How else would you get that kind of money to fund a ludicrously speculative research based endeavor? You don’t even know if it’s possible before the research. What else could they have done?
(I would say the same about some people who I haven't personally met, but it would be speculation)
“Somebody please think of the investors they only have 500 years of generational wealth”
Speak for yourself.
There's a limit to the amount of money I'd want (or could even use), and it's well below $10b. If someone came around with $10m and an honest deal and someone else offered $10b to buy the morality in my left toe, I'd take the $10m without question.
You can only buy the International Space Station twice.
I do think part of the price (paid) should be getting bluntly called out for it.
Left a very-well paying job over conscience reasons. TC was ~3x higher than I could get elsewhere without immigrating, probably higher than anywhere relative to CoL. I wasn't even doing defense stuff, crypto scams or anything clearly questionable like that, just clients were mostly in fossil-fuel adjacent sectors. Come from a lower-class background and haven't built up sizable assets at all, will likely need to work until retirement age.
AMA.
If anyone similar reads this, would love to get in touch as I'm sure we'll have a lot in common. In case someone here knows me, hi!
Once you have “enough”, your personal marginal utility for money changes. Would you go from what you are making now to being an at home nurse taking care of special needs kids for $16/hour?
If it'd be anything remotely like the former, I would have built up sizable assets (which I didn't), especially as I mentioned relative to CoL :)
What did you give up in your lifestyle that you personally valued to choose a lower paying job?
I’m 50, (step)kids are grown, we downsized from the big house in the burbs to a condo in a state tax free state, etc and while I could make “FAANG” total compensation (been there done that), I much prefer a more laid back job, remote work, freedom to travel,etc. I also have always hated large companies.
I would have made different choices a decade ago if the opportunities had arisen.
I’m well aware that my income puts me at the top quintile of household income (while still lower than a mid level developer at any of the BigTech companies).
https://dqydj.com/household-income-percentile-calculator/
Be as vague as you are comfortable with. But where are you with respect to the median income locally?
Decades earlier retirement. Bringing with it the exact freedom you're talking about.