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It's all jokes in this thread, but I wonder if there's any substance to such high praise. Is this just that, a praise? Or are there some traits of his that woul
by krick 3y ago
It's all jokes in this thread, but I wonder if there's any substance to such high praise. Is this just that, a praise? Or are there some traits of his that would make this plausible? Can I learn these traits?
I mean, surely I could say something like this about some of my acquaintances. Probably I have said that. But this doesn't really mean anything, and you shouldn't quote these jokes of mine as if they actually do.
My point is, there's that myth about "special" people. You know, like, there are NPCs, and there is Napoleon. But even though there are people I consider more capable and less capable, more interesting and less interesting, I don't know anybody I would truly believe to be special. And in the real world, everybody would die on that island just the same.
But then, I'm surely less well connected than Graham, and I don't even know many billionaires personally. So I cannot help but wonder.
- andrewflnr 3y agoThere's no need to invoke "NPCs". Some people are talented at painting, some people are talented at math, and some people are talented at bending large numbers of people to their will. It just happens that someone talented in gaining and holding power is more likely to be highly impactful and visible than someone talented in something that, well, doesn't explicitly revolve around impact and visibility.
- yreg 3y agoTotal off-topic, but if I was what you describe as a Napoleon-tier person, I would find it difficult to not believe I live in a simulation.
- kilpikaarna 3y agoNapoleon kind of did, he just expressed it in more traditional religious language about destiny and the divine, as opposed to the second-rate materialist knockoff version.
- truculent 3y agoThis is a backhanded compliment. Nothing pg says about Altman is straightforwardly positive; although he deliberately phrases things in a way that lots of American struggle to read negatively.
- yreg 3y agoThis was said 3 years before sama became a partner at YC and 6 years before pg named him president of YC. Whatever their falling out was like, it likely happened much later than 2008.
- theptip 3y agoI think PG's comments towards Sam (at least since Sam left YC) are not really complements, when you read between the lines... King of the cannibals? What do you have to be willing to do to take that crown? But yes, knowing some CEOs, I'd say there are rare (at the population level) traits that predispose you to success in that role. An ability to sell a vision, which can become pathological detachment from reality long before this trait becomes detrimental to your ability to fundraise for a startup. An ability to focus on the mission and not get bogged down in details, which can become pathological sociopathy/psychopathy long before this trait becomes detrimental to the company. Gift of the gab / eloquence is very helpful. A willingness to sacrifice a lot to achieve one's goals, which is usually detrimental to any kind of life outside of the business. Basically, CEOs are weirdos, the job is way harder than non-founders will ever know, and it definitely has selection pressures and feedback loops that can concentrate some extremely toxic traits if you're not careful. Most people don't want to be CEOs if they understand what it actually means, and most people wouldn't want to self-modify their personality to make them a lot more CEO-like.