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Agree with this completely. But besides Sam Altman, this whole episode has made me totally and completely lose all respect for Paul Graham. I used to really id
by hn_throwaway_99 8mo ago
Agree with this completely.
But besides Sam Altman, this whole episode has made me totally and completely lose all respect for Paul Graham. I used to really idolize pg, and I really used to like his essays, but over the years I've found his essays increasingly displayed a disturbing lack of introspection, like they'd always seem to say that starting a startup is the best thing anyone can do, and if you're not good at startups then you kind of suck.
But his continued support of Altman in this instance (see https://x.com/paulg/status/2027908286146875591 https://x.com/paulg/status/2027908286146875591, and the comment in that thread where he replies "yes") is just so extra disappointing and baffling. First, his big commendation for Altman is that he's doing an AMA? Give me an f'ing break. When someone is a great spin doctor I'm not going to commend them for doing more spinning. It's like he has total blinders on and is unwilling to see how sama's actions in this instance are so disgusting and duplicitous. Maybe subconsciously he knows he's responsible for really launching sama into the public consciousness, so he now just is incapable of seeing the undeniably shitty things sama has done.
Oh well, I guess it's just another tech leader from the late 90s/early 00s who has just shown me he's kind of a shitty person like a lot of us.
- jahnu 8mo agoBillions of dollars is a hell of a drug.
- causal 8mo agoYeah he has some great essays but also some that I find really dumb. Reading “Founder Mode” is when I realized he’s just as susceptible to fallacy as the rest of us.
- nextaccountic 8mo agoNever meet your heroes