[gwern]

Many points of interest here, including the answer to an earlier HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38384090 Why were the YC posts about Altman stepping down as YC president & becoming chairman so confusingly edited, and Altman seems to have either never been chairman or have quickly left? Well, because his post lacked candor about him becoming YC chairman:

"To smooth his exit, Altman proposed he move from president to chairman. He pre-emptively published a blog post on the firm’s website announcing the change. But the firm’s partnership had never agreed, and the announcement was later scrubbed from the post."

[natdempk]

> In early October, OpenAI’s chief scientist approached some fellow board members to recommend Altman be fired, citing roughly 20 examples of when he believed Altman misled OpenAI executives over the years.

I also thought this was interesting, not sure if this detail had been reported before this article, but seems like there were maybe more incidents than initially thought.

[gwern]

There had been two incidents reported: Sutskever seeing in Slack from other OA execs that the attempt to fire Toner was not over the paper but over her EA ties, and McCauley (apparently) being told by Altman that another board member wanted to fire Toner over the paper.

This list of 20 examples is new, albeit unsurprising given that there was no reason to think that there were only 2 incidents, and I highlight it in my longer commentary: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KXHMCH7wCxrvKsJyn/openai-fac...

[hutzlibu]

Also this other bit was news to me:

"Graham said it was his wife’s doing. “If anyone ‘fired’ Sam, it was Jessica, not me,” he said. “But it would be wrong to use the word ‘fired’ because he agreed immediately.” "

[bmitc]

Why are these people so sycophantic, especially to such an inexperienced person?

[AndrewKemendo]

The dirty truth is that the ideal Silicon Valley CEO is whomever can be a perfect sockpuppet for investors and still understand technical velocity.

The more ability you have to be kind of waterproof so to speak - like a duck - because of a mixture of positioning, ruthlessness, access, intelligence, perseverance, etc the better you are. Most importantly you have to regularly show allegiance to specifically investors over all other considerations, and boom you’re perfectly crafted.

Altman has brilliantly positioned himself as that perfect fulcrum between venture and technical skills such that he is (in his own mind and to a tiny subset of incredibly powerful people in SV) indispensable to the silicon valley crowd who doesn’t really know how to navigate the intersection between venture and technical skills.

[hutzlibu]

"“I saw in a 19-year-old Sam Altman the same thing that I see now: an intensely focused and brilliant person whom I was willing to bet big on,” said Chung, now managing general partner of Xfund, a venture-capital firm."

They believe in his focus to get things done, not in his ethics. And with ChatGPT, he got things done. Which means, he connected the right people and raised money so they can work on the important things.

[bmitc]

> said Chung, now managing general partner of Xfund, a venture-capital firm.

Emphasis mine. I mean, that's just backs up my original question. These people will say anything to garner favor, perceived or otherwise. I've seen Altman speak. At what point should I expect to see a representative example of this focus and insight?

[sebzim4500]

> At what point should I expect to see a representative example of this focus and insight?

Probably never. He says nothing of substance in public.

[FridgeSeal]

No you don’t get it, you’re not VC enough.

He has VC catnip, and he sprinkles it on his clothes, most notably between the 6 polo shirts he wears at once.

[bmitc]

Lol. I was once at a place of real business and research that hosted some machine learning talk by a guy at Uber. When he walked in, late I might add, to an auditorium full of business casual and suits, he looked like a cartoon character with his spiky hair, jeans, colorful shirt, and all. He also spent every answer to questions making it clear he doesn't work on self-driving cars or call-a-taxis, which was strange given his employer.

[amazingman]

His keynote at this year's OpenAI DevDay is an example of his focus. Have you watched it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9mJuUkhUzk

His pacing, clarity, and proficiency with the product are impressive; regardless of how one might feel about him.

[jstummbillig]

But of course, as with these things, nobody needs to admit to anything and any claim can easily be rejected.

The more polarising the figure, the more polarising the assessment of anything concerning them. Disconnecting different facets of a figure is not our strong suite.

[queuebert]

He's surrounded by VCs with confirmation bias.

[tim333]

Is firing someone being sycophantic?

[choppaface]

It is when your rich spouse asks you to do it and you do it despite attempting to pose as a leader in critical thinking in tech and potential counterbalance to your spouse. It’s an open admission that sama behaved blatantly unethically (perhaps illegally) but also pinned your financial opportunity cost so that you couldn’t play against him. Note that Loopt sold the profiles of poor people to low-income credit predators, and Sama did this to pay for his first pair of matching Mclarens (he literally bought the same car twice). Moreover pg claims he didn’t do it yet apparently flew back to CA from the UK to deal with it.

[anotherhue]

Gun jumping seems to be his style.

[vorticalbox]

Not that I agree with this method but it's a pretty effective way to force something.

[kdwikzncba]

No, it's an attempt to force, and has the same flaw as all attempts to force, which is: the other side might just call your bluff.

"Oh you think that going ahead before a decision is made and just publish a post will get us to decide in your favor because we're afraid of looking like we're backtracking? How about we don't decide in your favor and delete your post? What you gonna do now?"

[JumpCrisscross]

> How about we don't decide in your favor and delete your post?

This response, the one YC went with, is milquetoast. It’s rational. But the true fuck you is to counter-programme and publicly call out the lie.