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I would never post any criticism of an employer in public. It can only harm my own career (just as being positive can only help it). Given how vengeful Altman

I would never post any criticism of an employer in public. It can only harm my own career (just as being positive can only help it). Given how vengeful Altman can reportedly be, this goes double for OpenAI. This guy even says they scour social media! Whether subconsciously or not, one purpose of this post is probably to help this guy’s own personal network along; to try and put his weirdly short 14-month stint in the best possible light. I think it all makes him look like a mark, which is desirable for employers, so I guess it is working.

m00x 1y ago
Calvin cofounded Segment that had a $3.2B acquisition. He's not your typical employee.
- harmonic18374 1y ago
  He is still manipulatable and driven by incentive like anyone else.
  - m00x 1y ago
    What incentives? It's not a very intellectual opinion to give wild hypotheticals with nothing to go on other than "it's possible".
    - harmonic18374 1y ago
      I am not trying to advance wild hypotheticals, but something about his behavior does not quite feel right to me. Someone who has enough money for multiple lifetimes, working like he's possessed, to launch a product minimally different than those at dozens of other companies, and leaving his wife with all the childcare, then leaving after 14 months and insisting he was not burnt out but without a clear next step, not even, "I want to enjoy raising my child". His experience at OpenAI feels overly positive and saccharine, with a few shockingly naive comments that others have noted. I think there is obvious incentive. One reason for this is, he may be in burnout, but does not want to admit it. Another is, he is looking to the future: to keep options open for funding and connections if (when) he chooses to found again. He might be lonely and just want others in his life. Or to feel like he's working on something that "matters" in some way that his other company didn't. I don't know at all what he's actually thinking. But the idea that he is resistant to incentives just because he has had a successful exit seems untrue. I know people who are as rich as he is, and they are not much different than me.
      - m00x 1y ago
        Calvin just worked like this when I was at Segment. He picked what he worked on and worked really intensely at it. People most often burn out because of the lack of agency, not hours worked. Also, keep in mind that people aren't the same. What seems hard to you might be easy to others, vice versa.
        dr_dshiv 1y ago
        > People most often burn out because of the lack of agency, not hours worked.
      - pyman 1y ago
        Not sure if it's genuine insight or just a well-written bit of thoughtful PR. I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but the more I read about OpenAI, the more I like Meta. And I deleted Facebook years ago.
      - gneray 1y ago
        i know calvin, and he's one of the most authentic people i've worked with in tech. this could not be more off the mark
        lucianbr 1y ago
        This reflection seems very unlikely to be authentic because it is full of superlatives and not a single bad thing (or at least not great) is mentioned. Real organizations made of real humans simply are not like this. The fact that several commenters know the author personally goes some way to explain why the entire comment section seems to have missed the utterly unbalanced nature of the article.
        harmonic18374 1y ago
        People come out to defend their bosses a lot on this site, convincing themselves they know the powerful people best, that they’re “friends”. How can someone be so confident that a founder is authentic, when a large part of their job is to make you believe so (regardless of whether they are), and the employee’s own self image push them to believe it too?
- eddythompson80 1y ago
  That's even more of a reason not to bad mouth other billionaires/billion dollar companies. Billionaires and billion dollar companies work together all the time. It's not a massive pool. There is a reason beef between companies and top level execs and billionaires is all rumors and tea-talk until a lawsuit drops out of no where. You think every billionaire is gonna be unhinged like Musk calling the president a pedo on twitter?
  - jajko 1y ago
    Hebephile or ephebophile rather than pedo to be precise. And we all saw how great friend he was with epstein for decades, frequent visitor to his parties, dancing together and so on. Not really a shocking statement, whether true or not.
- ls-a 1y ago
  Which is a YC startup. If you know anything about YC it's the network of founders supporting each other no matter what.
  - blitzar 1y ago
    > no matter what except if you publicly speak in less than glowing terms their leaders
    - pyman 1y ago
      Some books do a good job of documenting the power struggles that happen behind closed doors, big egos backed by millions clashing over ideas and control. Not gonna lie, the entire article reads more like a puff piece than an honest reflection. Feels like something went down on Slack, some doors got slammed, and this article is just trying to keep them unlocked. Because no matter how rich you are in the Valley, if you're not on good terms with Sam, a lot of doors will close. He's the prodigy son of the Valley, adopted by Bill Gates and Peter Thiel, and secretly admired by Elon Musk. With Paul Graham's help, he spent 10 years building an army of followers by mentoring them and giving them money. Most of them are now millionaires with influence. And now, even the most powerful people in tech and politics need him. Jensen Huang needs his models to sell servers. Trump needs his expertise to upgrade defence systems. I saw him shaking hands with an Arab sheikh the other day. The kind of handshake that says: with your money and my ambition, we can rule the world.
      - N_Lens 1y ago
        Why that's exactly what we desperately need - more "rule the world" egos!
- Xenoamorphous 1y ago
  So this guy is filthy rich and yet decided to grind for 14 months with a newborn at home? I guess that's why he's filthy rich.
  - teiferer 1y ago
    Way to go to keep the boring chores of the first months with the partner and join the fun when the little one starts to be more fun after a year. With all that cash, I'm sure they could buy a bunch of help for the partner too.
    - Xenoamorphous 1y ago
      I don't know, when I became a parent I was in for the full ride, not to have someone else raising her. Yes, raising includes changing diapers and all that.
      - pegasus 1y ago
        You make it sound like your choice is somehow the righteous one. I'm not convinced. What's wrong with a hiring help, as long as it's well selected? And anyway, usually the help would take care of various errands to free up mom so she can focus on her baby. But maybe they have happily involved grandparents. Maybe he was working part-time. Or maybe there's some other factor we're completely missing on right now.
        Xenoamorphous 1y ago
        So you sincerely think it’s ok that everybody takes care of the kid but the father because he’s rich and can afford multiple nannies? There’s not much context to miss when TFA has this: > The Codex sprint was probably the hardest I've worked in nearly a decade. Most nights were up until 11 or midnight. Waking up to a newborn at 5:30 every morning. Heading to the office again at 7a. Working most weekends.
        1y ago
- ujkiolp 1y ago
  sounds exactly like a “typical employee”
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
44520297 1y ago
>This guy even says they scour social media! Every, and I mean every, technology company scours social media. Amazon has a team that monitors social media posts to make sure employees, their spouses, their friends don’t leak info, for example.

m00x 1y ago

Calvin cofounded Segment that had a $3.2B acquisition. He's not your typical employee.

harmonic18374 1y ago
He is still manipulatable and driven by incentive like anyone else.
- m00x 1y ago
  What incentives? It's not a very intellectual opinion to give wild hypotheticals with nothing to go on other than "it's possible".
  - harmonic18374 1y ago
    I am not trying to advance wild hypotheticals, but something about his behavior does not quite feel right to me. Someone who has enough money for multiple lifetimes, working like he's possessed, to launch a product minimally different than those at dozens of other companies, and leaving his wife with all the childcare, then leaving after 14 months and insisting he was not burnt out but without a clear next step, not even, "I want to enjoy raising my child". His experience at OpenAI feels overly positive and saccharine, with a few shockingly naive comments that others have noted. I think there is obvious incentive. One reason for this is, he may be in burnout, but does not want to admit it. Another is, he is looking to the future: to keep options open for funding and connections if (when) he chooses to found again. He might be lonely and just want others in his life. Or to feel like he's working on something that "matters" in some way that his other company didn't. I don't know at all what he's actually thinking. But the idea that he is resistant to incentives just because he has had a successful exit seems untrue. I know people who are as rich as he is, and they are not much different than me.
    - m00x 1y ago
      Calvin just worked like this when I was at Segment. He picked what he worked on and worked really intensely at it. People most often burn out because of the lack of agency, not hours worked. Also, keep in mind that people aren't the same. What seems hard to you might be easy to others, vice versa.
      - dr_dshiv 1y ago
        > People most often burn out because of the lack of agency, not hours worked.
    - pyman 1y ago
      Not sure if it's genuine insight or just a well-written bit of thoughtful PR. I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but the more I read about OpenAI, the more I like Meta. And I deleted Facebook years ago.
    - gneray 1y ago
      i know calvin, and he's one of the most authentic people i've worked with in tech. this could not be more off the mark
      - lucianbr 1y ago
        This reflection seems very unlikely to be authentic because it is full of superlatives and not a single bad thing (or at least not great) is mentioned. Real organizations made of real humans simply are not like this. The fact that several commenters know the author personally goes some way to explain why the entire comment section seems to have missed the utterly unbalanced nature of the article.
        harmonic18374 1y ago
        People come out to defend their bosses a lot on this site, convincing themselves they know the powerful people best, that they’re “friends”. How can someone be so confident that a founder is authentic, when a large part of their job is to make you believe so (regardless of whether they are), and the employee’s own self image push them to believe it too?
eddythompson80 1y ago
That's even more of a reason not to bad mouth other billionaires/billion dollar companies. Billionaires and billion dollar companies work together all the time. It's not a massive pool. There is a reason beef between companies and top level execs and billionaires is all rumors and tea-talk until a lawsuit drops out of no where. You think every billionaire is gonna be unhinged like Musk calling the president a pedo on twitter?
- jajko 1y ago
  Hebephile or ephebophile rather than pedo to be precise. And we all saw how great friend he was with epstein for decades, frequent visitor to his parties, dancing together and so on. Not really a shocking statement, whether true or not.
ls-a 1y ago
Which is a YC startup. If you know anything about YC it's the network of founders supporting each other no matter what.
- blitzar 1y ago
  > no matter what except if you publicly speak in less than glowing terms their leaders
  - pyman 1y ago
    Some books do a good job of documenting the power struggles that happen behind closed doors, big egos backed by millions clashing over ideas and control. Not gonna lie, the entire article reads more like a puff piece than an honest reflection. Feels like something went down on Slack, some doors got slammed, and this article is just trying to keep them unlocked. Because no matter how rich you are in the Valley, if you're not on good terms with Sam, a lot of doors will close. He's the prodigy son of the Valley, adopted by Bill Gates and Peter Thiel, and secretly admired by Elon Musk. With Paul Graham's help, he spent 10 years building an army of followers by mentoring them and giving them money. Most of them are now millionaires with influence. And now, even the most powerful people in tech and politics need him. Jensen Huang needs his models to sell servers. Trump needs his expertise to upgrade defence systems. I saw him shaking hands with an Arab sheikh the other day. The kind of handshake that says: with your money and my ambition, we can rule the world.
    - N_Lens 1y ago
      Why that's exactly what we desperately need - more "rule the world" egos!
Xenoamorphous 1y ago
So this guy is filthy rich and yet decided to grind for 14 months with a newborn at home? I guess that's why he's filthy rich.
- teiferer 1y ago
  Way to go to keep the boring chores of the first months with the partner and join the fun when the little one starts to be more fun after a year. With all that cash, I'm sure they could buy a bunch of help for the partner too.
  - Xenoamorphous 1y ago
    I don't know, when I became a parent I was in for the full ride, not to have someone else raising her. Yes, raising includes changing diapers and all that.
    - pegasus 1y ago
      You make it sound like your choice is somehow the righteous one. I'm not convinced. What's wrong with a hiring help, as long as it's well selected? And anyway, usually the help would take care of various errands to free up mom so she can focus on her baby. But maybe they have happily involved grandparents. Maybe he was working part-time. Or maybe there's some other factor we're completely missing on right now.
      - Xenoamorphous 1y ago
        So you sincerely think it’s ok that everybody takes care of the kid but the father because he’s rich and can afford multiple nannies? There’s not much context to miss when TFA has this: > The Codex sprint was probably the hardest I've worked in nearly a decade. Most nights were up until 11 or midnight. Waking up to a newborn at 5:30 every morning. Heading to the office again at 7a. Working most weekends.
        1y ago
ujkiolp 1y ago
sounds exactly like a “typical employee”

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

44520297 1y ago

>This guy even says they scour social media! Every, and I mean every, technology company scours social media. Amazon has a team that monitors social media posts to make sure employees, their spouses, their friends don’t leak info, for example.