"...the importance of aligning your aspirations and your capabilities" - Absolutely spot on. I think what most people get wrong is not objectively assessing their actual abilities before setting goals.
The truth is, our aspirations rarely manifest not because our dreams lacked grandiosity, but because those dreams bore little semblance to our present-day abilities in the first place.
Vision locked in misalignment with reality risks disillusion, wasted effort chasing pipe dreams far exceeding our reach. But vision married to an accurate map of our capabilities can chart a path forward that elevates performance to turn lofty goals into tangible results.
Great insightful piece. Thanks for sharing it. The sentence “They came at the king, and missed, and made him the Emperor. “ couldn’t be more true, and it surely will leave a mark.
Just red this article in WaPo right after your post: "Sam Altman’s been fired before. The polarizing past of OpenAI’s reinstated CEO."
Header reads: "Before OpenAI, Altman was asked to leave by his mentor (Paul Graham, my note) at the prominent start-up incubator Y Combinator, part of a pattern of clashes that some attribute to his self-serving approach."
Paul G had not been public about this until today. The article details aspects of Sam's personality that provide yet another perspective on the OpenAI sitcom.
I feel there’s probably another analysis to be done on the doomer type and elitism. How that feeling of being an elite blinds them to something as simple as “the will of the people.”
“They didn’t realize that OpenAI is nothing without its people.”
Since we're sighting Little Finger, we should remember that he endeavored to generate Chaos to find that 'ladder' he sought. He wasn't hanging out waiting for ladders.
Retrofitting grant strategy to what happened with OpenAI and Sam Altman seems far fetched. All of this looks like an internal point of view, what would employees think, investors think. I think the long term effect might be people who are actually using the product might loose faith in the fragility of the leadership structure and the fake altruism popularise by Silicon Valley.
We'll see! I obviously don't think they planned the events of last weekend, but responded well based off of capabilities they'd built up over a long time with big ambitions in mind.
I agree with you it is too far-fetched. Sam was in a strong position because of his team's willingness to go along with him and pressure from the outside for example, Microsoft. I do not believe there was any grand strategy here.
There is so much competition in the pipeline that the next year at this time may look very different as there are a lot of other ambitious people and people with the grand strategy. What is the moat right now with all these products? Compute, Quality and Quantity of data. So, you can count, Google, Elon with X data, Facebook, and a few other companies will be able to compete in the near future, and I am not even talking companies outside of US (like in France, UK and China) that have similar ambitious goals. We will have to see if it would be another iPhone taking over Nokia situation in the next few years. Additionally, we have the copyright problem to be solve in the near future at least in the US. The bigger question is: Is AI something that will replace most of the job in the next few decades? I do not think this is the case based on the current algorithms and compute needs. Also, we need to first define what is intelligence and AGI otherwise we will never know when the machines have more intelligence than us. We have to wait next 5-10 years or may be longer to see where we stand with it.
"...the importance of aligning your aspirations and your capabilities" - Absolutely spot on. I think what most people get wrong is not objectively assessing their actual abilities before setting goals.
The truth is, our aspirations rarely manifest not because our dreams lacked grandiosity, but because those dreams bore little semblance to our present-day abilities in the first place.
Vision locked in misalignment with reality risks disillusion, wasted effort chasing pipe dreams far exceeding our reach. But vision married to an accurate map of our capabilities can chart a path forward that elevates performance to turn lofty goals into tangible results.
Great insightful piece. Thanks for sharing it. The sentence “They came at the king, and missed, and made him the Emperor. “ couldn’t be more true, and it surely will leave a mark.
Totally agree, but you did not mention the collateral damage to our University system.
These academic perpetrators, with the rippling waves of WSJ headlines, have displayed their
incompetence to run a corporation, prompting the question in the minds of many paying tuition,
"What else are they incompetent at?" (Forgive the ending preposition, I've joined the working class.)
In corporate America, when the board has the votes to fire the boss, they all talk together privately,
then the boss announces he is stepping down to spend more time with family.
These geniuses, living in an alternate universe, jumped out and yelled, "Surprise!" on a Friday afternoon, when the market was still open.
With high, altruistic intentions, they jeopardized the careers of thousands of employees, not to mention the pensions of millions.
(Can you think of a pension fund, which does not include Microsoft--including University pensions.
You will argue that 13 Billion is lunch money for Microsoft, but there is a principal of responsibility involved.)
Did America need such a drama to prove that academics are totally unaware of the dull nuts-and-bolts
of the real world where students will have to work in the future?
Completely agree with this take. They did not think through even the second order consequences of their actions, let alone all the latent functions.
We’ve already seen that bleeding edge AI development can’t be done at universities. It’s too expensive.
And this fiasco will make it difficult at best to have academics with no skin in the game in positions of authority.
very well crafted essay. Really enjyed it ;-)
Thank you for a piece that provides just as much insight as it does inspiration.
Have a wonderful holiday weekend :)
Just red this article in WaPo right after your post: "Sam Altman’s been fired before. The polarizing past of OpenAI’s reinstated CEO."
Header reads: "Before OpenAI, Altman was asked to leave by his mentor (Paul Graham, my note) at the prominent start-up incubator Y Combinator, part of a pattern of clashes that some attribute to his self-serving approach."
Paul G had not been public about this until today. The article details aspects of Sam's personality that provide yet another perspective on the OpenAI sitcom.
Loved this breakdown. 🔥
I feel there’s probably another analysis to be done on the doomer type and elitism. How that feeling of being an elite blinds them to something as simple as “the will of the people.”
“They didn’t realize that OpenAI is nothing without its people.”
Since we're sighting Little Finger, we should remember that he endeavored to generate Chaos to find that 'ladder' he sought. He wasn't hanging out waiting for ladders.
Retrofitting grant strategy to what happened with OpenAI and Sam Altman seems far fetched. All of this looks like an internal point of view, what would employees think, investors think. I think the long term effect might be people who are actually using the product might loose faith in the fragility of the leadership structure and the fake altruism popularise by Silicon Valley.
We'll see! I obviously don't think they planned the events of last weekend, but responded well based off of capabilities they'd built up over a long time with big ambitions in mind.
I agree with you it is too far-fetched. Sam was in a strong position because of his team's willingness to go along with him and pressure from the outside for example, Microsoft. I do not believe there was any grand strategy here.
There is so much competition in the pipeline that the next year at this time may look very different as there are a lot of other ambitious people and people with the grand strategy. What is the moat right now with all these products? Compute, Quality and Quantity of data. So, you can count, Google, Elon with X data, Facebook, and a few other companies will be able to compete in the near future, and I am not even talking companies outside of US (like in France, UK and China) that have similar ambitious goals. We will have to see if it would be another iPhone taking over Nokia situation in the next few years. Additionally, we have the copyright problem to be solve in the near future at least in the US. The bigger question is: Is AI something that will replace most of the job in the next few decades? I do not think this is the case based on the current algorithms and compute needs. Also, we need to first define what is intelligence and AGI otherwise we will never know when the machines have more intelligence than us. We have to wait next 5-10 years or may be longer to see where we stand with it.
Caesar Seriously? lol!