9 ms·

Altman has proven time and again that he is little more than a huckster wrt technology, and in business he is a stone cold shark. Conman plain and simple.

by ocodo 2y ago

wraptile 2y ago
Not going to lie, he had me. He appeared very genuine and fair in almost all media he appeared like podcasts but many of his actions are just so hard to justify.
- JohnFen 2y ago
  This is why it's a mistake to go by "vibes" of a person when they're speaking to an audience. Pay attention to what they do, not what they say.
- svachalek 2y ago
  He has a certain charm and seeming sincerity when he talks. But the more I see of him, the more disturbing I find him -- he combines the Mark Zuckerberg stare with the Elizabeth Holmes vocal fry.
  - jesterson 2y ago
    so all psychopaths do, aren't they?
    - johnnyanmac 2y ago
      CEO's have been studied to have a disproportionately higher rate of psychopathy. So there's a little correlation. You don't get to the top of a company in this kind of society without having some inherent charm (assuming you aren't simply inheriting billions from a previous generation).
      - jesterson 2y ago
        All power position attract psychopaths, so naturally we find more when we look at those.
    - cutemonster 2y ago
      Not the physically violent ones with impulse control problems.
  - polotics 2y ago
    Do you have a link to a video of Altman's voice shifting from controlled deep to nasal? The videos of Elizabeth Holmes not being able to keep up with the faked deep tone are textbook-worthy...
- kristiandupont 2y ago
  I have exactly the same feeling as I think you do. When you reach the levels of success he has, there will always be people screaming that you are incompetent, evil and every other negative adjective under the sun. But he genuinely seemed to care about doing the right thing. But this is just so lacking of basic morals that I have to conclude that I was wrong, at least to an extent.
  - wraptile 2y ago
    I feel that this is a classic tale of success getting to you. It almost feels like it's impossible to be successful at this level and remain true. At least, I hadn't seen it yet.
    - Intralexical 2y ago
      Or "success" itself acts as a filter selecting for those who are ruthless enough to do amoral and immoral things.
  - gdilla 2y ago
    He just, to his credit, understands his public persona has to be the non-douchy-tech-bro and the media will eat it up. Much like a politician. He doesn't want to be like Elon or Travis K in public (though he probably agrees with them more than his public persona would imply).
lawn 2y ago
You'd think that Worldcoin would be enough proof of what he is but I guess people missed that memo.
- samaltmanfried 2y ago
  [dead]
- JoRyGu 2y ago
  Because of course he's got a crypto grift going. Shocking.
- ben_w 2y ago
  Much as I dislike crypto, that's more of "having no sense of other people's privacy" (and hubris) than general scamminess. It's a Musk-error not an SBF-error. (Of course, I do realise many will say all three are the same, but I think it's worth separating the types of mistakes everyone makes, because everyone makes mistakes, and only two of these three also did useful things).
  - pwdisswordfishc 2y ago
    > that's more of "having no sense of other people's privacy" Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.
    - ben_w 2y ago
      It's not particularly advanced, it's the same thing that means the supermajority of websites have opted for "click here to consent to our 1200 partners processing everything you do on our website" rather than "why do we need 1200 partners anyway?" It's still bad, don't get be wrong, it's just something I can distinguish.
      - CRConrad 2y ago
        I think those websites actually have only one partner, one of the tiny oligopoly of advertisement brokers. That partner (*cough*Google*cough*), in turn, bows to the fig leaf of user consent via those interminable dialogs. So the site owners' question should probably be "Why do we need to partner with this behemoth that shackles us to 1200 'partners?".
mlindner 2y ago
I'm glad more people are thinking this. It's amazing that he got his way back into OpenAI somehow. I said as much that he shouldn't go back to OpenAI and got downvotes universally both here and on reddit.
- renegade-otter 2y ago
  Altman's biggest accomplishment is being out of the way. Great work is done despite management, not because of it. It's the ability to hire the right people and get out of their hair. Altman himself has no talents, he is not technical. He is just well-connected in the Valley. But, at least Altman is not the wrecking ball like Elon Musk is, and that's really his only job - to not micromanage.
m000 2y ago
Aspiring technofeudalist.
firebirdn99 2y ago
almost every tech ceo is like that. Could list many examples. It's an effect of capitalism.

Altman has proven time and again that he is little more than a huckster wrt technology, and in business he is a stone cold shark. Conman plain and simple.

by ocodo 2y ago

Altman has proven time and again that he is little more than a huckster wrt technology, and in business he is a stone cold shark. Conman plain and simple.

wraptile 2y ago

Not going to lie, he had me. He appeared very genuine and fair in almost all media he appeared like podcasts but many of his actions are just so hard to justify.

JohnFen 2y ago
This is why it's a mistake to go by "vibes" of a person when they're speaking to an audience. Pay attention to what they do, not what they say.
svachalek 2y ago
He has a certain charm and seeming sincerity when he talks. But the more I see of him, the more disturbing I find him -- he combines the Mark Zuckerberg stare with the Elizabeth Holmes vocal fry.
- jesterson 2y ago
  so all psychopaths do, aren't they?
  - johnnyanmac 2y ago
    CEO's have been studied to have a disproportionately higher rate of psychopathy. So there's a little correlation. You don't get to the top of a company in this kind of society without having some inherent charm (assuming you aren't simply inheriting billions from a previous generation).
    - jesterson 2y ago
      All power position attract psychopaths, so naturally we find more when we look at those.
  - cutemonster 2y ago
    Not the physically violent ones with impulse control problems.
- polotics 2y ago
  Do you have a link to a video of Altman's voice shifting from controlled deep to nasal? The videos of Elizabeth Holmes not being able to keep up with the faked deep tone are textbook-worthy...
kristiandupont 2y ago
I have exactly the same feeling as I think you do. When you reach the levels of success he has, there will always be people screaming that you are incompetent, evil and every other negative adjective under the sun. But he genuinely seemed to care about doing the right thing. But this is just so lacking of basic morals that I have to conclude that I was wrong, at least to an extent.
- wraptile 2y ago
  I feel that this is a classic tale of success getting to you. It almost feels like it's impossible to be successful at this level and remain true. At least, I hadn't seen it yet.
  - Intralexical 2y ago
    Or "success" itself acts as a filter selecting for those who are ruthless enough to do amoral and immoral things.
- gdilla 2y ago
  He just, to his credit, understands his public persona has to be the non-douchy-tech-bro and the media will eat it up. Much like a politician. He doesn't want to be like Elon or Travis K in public (though he probably agrees with them more than his public persona would imply).

lawn 2y ago

You'd think that Worldcoin would be enough proof of what he is but I guess people missed that memo.

samaltmanfried 2y ago
[dead]
JoRyGu 2y ago
Because of course he's got a crypto grift going. Shocking.
ben_w 2y ago
Much as I dislike crypto, that's more of "having no sense of other people's privacy" (and hubris) than general scamminess. It's a Musk-error not an SBF-error. (Of course, I do realise many will say all three are the same, but I think it's worth separating the types of mistakes everyone makes, because everyone makes mistakes, and only two of these three also did useful things).
- pwdisswordfishc 2y ago
  > that's more of "having no sense of other people's privacy" Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.
  - ben_w 2y ago
    It's not particularly advanced, it's the same thing that means the supermajority of websites have opted for "click here to consent to our 1200 partners processing everything you do on our website" rather than "why do we need 1200 partners anyway?" It's still bad, don't get be wrong, it's just something I can distinguish.
    - CRConrad 2y ago
      I think those websites actually have only one partner, one of the tiny oligopoly of advertisement brokers. That partner (*cough*Google*cough*), in turn, bows to the fig leaf of user consent via those interminable dialogs. So the site owners' question should probably be "Why do we need to partner with this behemoth that shackles us to 1200 'partners?".

mlindner 2y ago

I'm glad more people are thinking this. It's amazing that he got his way back into OpenAI somehow. I said as much that he shouldn't go back to OpenAI and got downvotes universally both here and on reddit.

renegade-otter 2y ago
Altman's biggest accomplishment is being out of the way. Great work is done despite management, not because of it. It's the ability to hire the right people and get out of their hair. Altman himself has no talents, he is not technical. He is just well-connected in the Valley. But, at least Altman is not the wrecking ball like Elon Musk is, and that's really his only job - to not micromanage.

m000 2y ago

Aspiring technofeudalist.

firebirdn99 2y ago

almost every tech ceo is like that. Could list many examples. It's an effect of capitalism.