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Comment by DeIlliad | Hacker News Reader

I will never understand the cult of personality that appears around people like Altman, Musk, or whoever the unicorn CEO of the month is. They are always, without exception, smooth talking psychopaths. That might as well be the job description of being a CEO of a company startup with this kind of growth.

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One of these things is not like the other. Altman led OpenAI to an industry leading position and produced record results in product adoption. Even if that is over-praising him, Microsoft's fast and enormous investment in OpenAI was evidently closely linked to Altman. Just springing a surprise on Microsoft was dunderheaded enough to make it obvious that, whatever the board was doing, it was the opposite of what should have been done.

In contrast, it is equally obvious Elon dragged $44B into the road and set it on fire.

How is it equally obvious Elon dragged $44B into the road and set it on fire? Are you sure you aren't speaking from a perspective of bias that already has a disdain towards Elon?

Good point. Based on the latest internal valuation, Elon only destroyed $25b in the first year.

Internal valuations can predict market prices of currently private companies? That’s amazing, someone should go make billions off that

Yes. Everything at X is going swimmingly well, and the statement that from the company that it lost half its valuation, and the owner publicly telling companies to stop advertising on it is actually 19 dimensional chessboxing.

Geez, man. A contortionist would be envious of how you.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/30/23938969/x-twitter-valua...

Your assessment is clearly outputted from a model weighted towards disdain.

Sorry. Senpai will never notice you.

I have no idea what you’re trying to say.

Agreed, I have the opposite visceral reaction; immediate and intense skepticism.

The power of reason alone is generally insufficient to spur people into action. It's the impassioned, often irrational fervor that galvanizes movements and leads to significant change. Consider the impact of Erasmus, a paragon of rational thought, against that of Luther, a figure of intense passion and conviction. Initially, Erasmus garnered attention and respect, yet his logical approach failed to incite actionable change among the people. In stark contrast, Luther, with his fervent and somewhat radical beliefs, succeeded in mobilizing the masses.

> Altman’s departure jeopardized an investment deal that would allow them to sell their stock back to OpenAI, cashing out equity without waiting for the company to go public.

"Smooth talking psychopaths" can make you rich if you get in early enough and not left holding the bag.

Sure, but you can remain self aware about what's going on. So many people seem to join the cult of personality, not just recognize the aligned incentives.

Being a smooth talking steve jobs is valuable in an of itself. If you can sell your company to the public with an aura, that's worth more than CTO/CIO/CMO etc combined.

Better to be a thomas edison than a tesla.

My immediate thought on this comment was of was Steve Jobs but I’ve backed off a bit. The man seems to have been a bit of an asshole to some, the stories are numerous, but in some ways he seems different.

I think mostly because he didn’t seem devious, or self serving, just blunt and his mission was to the company or product more so than to himself.

Hi died relatively young and before the general tech backlash, which is why people look back at him fondly. Had he lived, he would've been taken down many notches. I mean, rich asshole who verbally abuses and berates his staff, upgrades his Benz every six months so he doesn't need a license plate like the plebs AND parks exclusively in the disabled spot? That was never gonna fly.

Steve’s overriding mission was to the customer. He used his own taste as a proxy for customer goals.

> Better to be a thomas edison than a tesla

A great example of why America is in social and political decline. The base nihilism of the con man figure is now the quintessential American aspiration.

Truly, a man that died penniless while spouting rather fanciful and discredited claims of superweapons (earthquake machines, intercontinental death rays, for two) is clearly the man to emulate.

Truly, the psychopath torturing animals with live current in public is the man to emulate!

Never happened, that's an urban legend

>Eventually, Edison’s team would kill 44 dogs, six calves, and two horses in their quest to discredit alternating current.

https://www.discovermagazine.com/technology/the-cruel-animal...

Okay, I might have to mea culpa here, as I thought it was a reference to the infamous Topsy the elephant, which Edison was not involved with.

Yes. Who would want to be the genius who discovered a revolutionary paradigm in energy transmission and created numerous world-changing inventions when you could be the rich asshole who ripped him off?

And also who claimed to have invented a telephone that talked to the dead[0], btw.

[0]https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/dial-a-ghost-on-thomas...

In what sense does Altman belong in the same sentence as Musk? I’m completely puzzled.

Well as per above both are smooth talking psychopaths. However you're right that Altman is much poorer and should probably be listed in the second tier.

Why not add Putin, Trump, Mussolini, or any other number of leaders and historical figures?

This is something a sizable portion of populations do. You may not do it yourself, but understand are people are going to behave like this and prepare accordingly.

We could add them. I didn't because I was keeping my statement within the context of the article focusing on a tech leader but sure, all of them fit the bill.

Yep them too.

Musk is farthest from a smooth talking founder/ceo

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