[jmerz]

I think he's not as known in the outside world but it's really difficult to understate the amount of social capital sama has in the inner circles of Silicon Valley. It sounds like he did a good job instilling loyalty as a CEO as well, but the SV thing means that the more connected someone at the company is to the SV ecosystem, the more likely they like him/want to be on his good side.

This is kind of like the leadership of the executive branch switching parties. You're not going to say "why would the staff immediately quit?" Especially since this is corporate America, and sama can have another "country" next week.

[bmitc]

So it's a big deal because he has a cult of personality?

[belugacat]

It’s a big deal because he’s extremely charismatic and well connected and that matters much, much more for a tech company’s success than some programmers like to think.

[bmitc]

I have watched him speak, and he doesn't seem charismatic at all. I remember hearing the same things about Sam Bankman-Fried and then going and watching his interviews and feeling the same.

There is just a giant gap here where I simply do not get it, and I see no evidence that explains me not getting it is missing some key aspect of all this. This just seems like classic cargo cult, cult of personality, and following money and people who think they know best

[creshal]

There's different types of charisma; some people appear extremely charismatic in person but not through a camera (there's a bunch of politicians you could name here), and vice versa (a lot actors).

[bakuninsbart]

Charisma is a euphemism for people starting to see dollar signs when they get close to him. The better you are connected, the more people want to connect with you, and Altman seems to have driven this to an exreme in SV, and the broader policy/tech world thanks to OpenAI. If you look at who is (probably) going to leave with him, it is mostly former ycombinator people or people clearly drawn to OAI through his connections.

[djokkataja]

> I have watched him speak, and he doesn't seem charismatic at all.

Consider the relative charisma of the people around him, though.

[joenot443]

Surely you can understand that the persona one presents while giving a speech is often entirely different from the one they assume in private? I figured you knew him personally, this is a pretty funny justification.

If your analysis is based solely off YouTube interviews, I think your perspective on Sam’s capabilities and personality is going to be pretty surface level and uninteresting.

[NoobSaibot135]

+1

tech execs are trained to be toned down when in public and the camera is on them(so they don't say something that will make -ve headlines later).

Example:

Elon's recent biography shows that he swears a lot casually while working (as do many of us). You wouldn't glean that from any of his public interviews.

[aleph_minus_one]

> I have watched him speak, and he doesn't seem charismatic at all. I remember hearing the same things about Sam Bankman-Fried and then going and watching his interviews and feeling the same.

Beside the argument that creshal brought up in a sibling comment that some people are more charismatic live and some are more charismatic through a camera:

In my observation, quite some programmers are much more immune to "charisma influence" (or rather: manipulation by charisma) than other people. For example, in the past someone sent me an old video of Elon Musk where in some TV show (I think) he explained how he wants to build a rocket to fly to the moon and the respective person claimed that this video makes you want Musk to succeed because of the confidence that Elon Musk shows. Well, this is not the impression that the video made on me ...

[Solvency]

What am I missing here: Sam Altman has zero charisma or cool factor. Every talk I've seen him in, he comes off as lethargic and sluggish. I get zero sense of passion or rallying drive around the hype of AI from him. He's not an AI visionary. He's not a hype man. He simply "is", and just because he happens to have been the CEO he's been thrust into the spotlight, but there's literally nothing interesting about him.

[fallingknife]

What you are missing is his record of success and making the people under him rich. That's the kind of person people to work for. They want to make money, not to work for someone who looks good on camera.

[aleph_minus_one]

Your comment was the first about sama's "charisma" where the puzzle pieces fit together. :-)

[sumitkumar]

Is is not generic charisma. It is specific to who he can attract to work with him. You and I cannot figure it out just by going through how we perceive him from a distance. The average AI researcher/investor isn't looking for traditional charisma. In the interview with Lex Friedman he comes across as just the right person to lead the current GPT based products. Anyone else would be too traditional for this nascent product suite.

[leobg]

Read what pg has to say about him. He named Altman as one of the top 5 most interesting founders of the last 30 years.

> startup investing does not consist of trying to pick winners the way you might in a horse race. But there are a few people with such force of will that they're going to get whatever they want.

http://www.paulgraham.com/5founders.html

[rramadass]

This was one of the stupidest things PG had said/written. Sam Altman's first company "Loopt" was a YCombinator startup and hence i suspect PG was building him up for business reasons.

The rest is "Halo Effect" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_effect

[bmitc]

Paul Graham has a lot of things to say about a lot of things. It doesn't make what he writes right.

[leobg]

Wasn’t saying that. In fact, I was quite puzzled. Altman hasn’t started any SpaceX, NVIDIA or even Stripe.

However, pg has been working with many founders. And he has been working with Altman. I haven’t.

So while it may puzzle me, I do have to wonder what there is that I may be missing.

[feraloink]

Agreed. I like your adjectives of lethargic and sluggish. I have read all the responses to you and a few others who made a similar observation. I remain unconvinced about what is so essential about Sam Altman to OpenAI. I just don't get it.

[vkou]

I understand why this would be uniquely valuable for a startup, but why is this be uniquely valuable for MSFT? Are they planning on raising a series B next year?

[iwsk]

We live in a society.

[ChatGTP]

I don’t find him charismatic at all. I find Donald Trump more charismatic and I think he is the devil in disguise.

[joenot443]

Your phrasing here suggests this is some kind of dunk on sama, but it’s really not. JFK and Huey Long both had cults of personality, it doesn’t mean they weren’t incredibly effective and influential.

[feraloink]

Yes. Well, it seems like it to me.

Here's more about Justin.tv the new interim CEO. It isn't paywalled. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/20/who-is-emmett-shear-the-new-...

[natch]

I wouldn’t call the entire YC community a cult of personality. And that’s just a subset of his network.

[bmitc]

It's not all, but you see plenty of it here.

[toomuchtodo]

People see what they want to see.

[andrepd]

Yes.

[steakscience]

Every SV CEO has a "Sam Altman saved my butt during crucial incident X" story

[Raptor22]

What are some examples of these crucial incidents?

[DonHopkins]

It was a dark and stormy night off the coast of Maine. The winds were howling, the waves were monstrous, and there I was, stranded on my lobster fishing boat in the middle of a hurricane. The sea was a ferocious beast, tossing my vessel around like a toy. Just when all seemed lost, a figure appeared on the horizon. It was Sam Altman, riding a giant, neon-lit drone, battling the tempest with nothing but his bare hands and indomitable will.

As he approached, lightning crackled around him, as if he was commanding the elements themselves. With a deft flick of his wrist, he sent a bolt of lightning to scare away a school of flying sharks that were drawn by the storm. Landing on the deck of my boat with the grace of a superhero, he surveyed the chaos.

"Need a hand with those lobsters?" he quipped, as he single-handedly wrangled the crustaceans with an efficiency that would put any seasoned fisherman to shame. But Sam wasn't done yet. With a mere glance, he reprogrammed my malfunctioning GPS using his mind, charting a course to safety.

As the boat rocked violently, a massive wave loomed over us, threatening to engulf everything. Sam, unfazed, simply turned to the wave and whispered a few unintelligible words. Incredibly, the wave halted in its tracks, parting around us like the Red Sea. He then casually conjured a gourmet meal from the lobsters, serving it with a fine wine that materialized out of thin air.

Just as quickly as he had appeared, Sam mounted his drone once more. "Time to go innovate the weather," he said with a wink, before soaring off into the storm, leaving behind a trail of rainbows.

As the skies cleared and the sea calmed, I realized that in the world of Silicon Valley CEOs, having a "Sam Altman saved my butt" story was more than just a rite of passage; it was a testament to the boundless, almost mythical capabilities of a man who defied the very laws of nature and business. And I, a humble lobster fisherman, had just become part of that legend.

[38321003thrw]

You know Don, what touched me about this wonderful story of the charming visionary from SV —- thanks for sharing — is that his reach is as wide as his heart is big! Here you were, a mere fisherman somewhere off the coast of Maine, and here this hero of the age, this charming tower of visionary insight, coming over all the way from California to ‘shave your butt’. (Oops, that was a typo.)

[DonHopkins]

Oh he totally shaved my butt too, as the story grows on each telling, and he taught six lobsters to speak Esperanto as well!

[rightbyte]

Like what?

[jacky2wong]

can you share some stories? would love to learn how sam networked his way into sv

[basicoperation]

Do you mean “difficult to overstate”?

“Difficult to understate” would mean he has little to no social capital.

[underlipton]

>I think he's not as known in the outside world but it's really difficult to understate the amount of social capital sama has in the inner circles of Silicon Valley.

This definitely sounds like someone the average person - including the average tech worker, exceptionally income-engorged as they may be - would want heading the, "Manhattan Project but potentially for inconceivably sophisticated social/economic/mind control et al." project. /s