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Comment by jalapenos | Hacker News Reader

Altman strikes me as a dude who came from a special tier of toxic upbringing.

I wouldn't say he's much different or worse than certain BBS sysadmins I knew in the early 90s... just that I'd never want those guys to be endowed with enough money and hardware to wreak their vision on the world

That's the problem though. One of those types did get that type of power.

Not only one of those types, I can think of at least another one that's (IMHO) far worse than Altman. You know, the one with the social network everyone used to use before he turned it into a cesspool of disinformation, the one with the alternate Wikipedia, the obsession with the letter X?

That's my bad. I shouldn't have spoken in the singular tense. It's a rich tapestry of losers.

You're not wrong. But it's case, not tense. <3

Sorry, I'm not trying to be an asshole. I mean, I am one. But I'm not trying to be.

Yes, those people did get some control. Yes - they are like the bad versions of us.

We can be smarter. We'll win. Their dumb little utopias will collapse. Watch.

Tense means past/present/future. Case is for single/multiple pronouns.

I dropped out of school but I had a very mean grammar teacher ;)

Fair enough. I appreciate you taking the time to correct me. No need to be apologetic!

It's the only way I'll learn :)

Maybe I'm jaded, but I feel like a lot of them did for a moment. Gates, Jobs, Zuck, all got their days of glory and it's quickly that everyone realizes they're a giant misanthropic asshole. If the pot of gold at the end of Altman's quest turns out to be as big as what he's priced it at, then yes, he'll be one of history's most successful sociopaths. If not, he's just another in a long line.

He is literally a manifestation of the phenomenon described in this book:

https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.469826

"The Authoritarian Personality"

tl;dr - the roots of the authoritarian personality grow fertile in the desire to be free of 'the filth of others'. Altman seems like he'd go crazy if he didn't keep his machine spectacularly clean ..

He was talking about education. I'm pretty sure about it.

He devalues and invalidates his fellow human beings, from a position of disdain, too much for my liking. Avoiding his activities.

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