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by bacheson1293 942 days ago
how do you know he's a good person if you don't know him well?
2 comments

Because you can know someone non-well and think they're a really good person. It's not strong evidence, but it's not nothing.
You can know someone is a bad person from casual interaction, but not vice versa. There's basically no way to know if anyone intelligent is a good person without extremely intense surveillance. I guess with an unintelligent person, you can assume that they're not smart enough to hide if they're doing something really bad, but even then, maybe they're just playing dumb.
I don’t know Sam Altman well but I do not think he’s a particularly good person, so there’s some counter-evidence.

Personally I welcome this shake up. Some of the things I’ve seen Altman write about are troubling.

I've had a positive opinion of sama as a human ever since this comment about him living with his two brothers well into their 30s: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12592010

It's a corollary to my theory that anybody that maintains close ties with their family and lives with them is a wholesome person.

You've got to be kidding. Really, are you kidding? That's an extremely weak litmus test for goodness.

Plenty of people maintain extremely close connections with their families while engaging in activies that are terrible for the world around them. Organized criminals. Terrorists. Business magnates. Political families. Corrupt police officers. Plenty of these groups are made out of tight-knit families.

It's common, dare I say human nature, to prioritize the needs of your family. That is honorable and important, but being a Good person requires caring about strangers too.

SBF seems close to his family, too...
I think you completely missed the part about living with your siblings into your 30s.

With the exception of the brothers in the mafia or brother terrorists, none of your examples would meet that standard.

Being close with your family does not mean you’re not a good person elsewhere. It does not mean you don’t care about strangers. That you’d jump to that conclusion or bring up terrorists as a counter example makes me question your own personal experiences.

All else being equal, I’d expect someone with close family bonds to the point of living with them as an adult, when they clearly have the economic means to do otherwise, as a sign of a good human. That’s been my personal experience and that’s how I see the world.

Do you know a lot of married people who live with their siblings? Because I would think it is mainly a sign of relationship status.
> anybody that maintains close ties with their family and lives with them is a wholesome person

Alternative possibility: the family's a cult.

You know, minus sexually abusing his sister.
You should see what his sister writes about him...
Some might say a little too close.