
Sam Altman Taking Over As President Of Y Combinator - hodgesmr
http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/21/sam-altman-taking-over-as-president-of-y-combinator-replacing-paul-graham-at-the-helm/
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pak
Is this the reason that so many of his recent posts were promoted on here? Was
the intention to build the cachet of some widely read essays so he could
credibly step in for PG?

HN stories for his blog start about a year ago, a little after this article
says the idea originally was floated (mid-2012), and they have pretty
consistently frontpaged:
[http://hn.algolia.com/#!/story/sort_by_date/prefix/0/blog.sa...](http://hn.algolia.com/#!/story/sort_by_date/prefix/0/blog.samaltman.com)

It makes me wonder if it was a coordinated, planned effort.

~~~
karlhwhite
...or were they well-written and well-received, signaling the reasons why this
choice makes sense?

~~~
pak
Your hypothesis and the one I floated aren't mutually exclusive.

My idea doesn't necessitate a conspiracy or playing with the points/ranking,
which PG is rather _quick_ to deny in his reply to me. It could have just been
a plan for Sam to release blog posts over a period of time and try to get them
read. I'm curious if this was a conscious effort to build something akin to
[http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html)
given the role he was being groomed for. Of course, I'm also always curious
about the way this site really works on the inside.

I do find it ironic that the piece that got the most upvotes (AI, with ~570)
was one that Sam admitted he hardly worked on:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7268247](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7268247)

In that comment, he claims he is simply blogging to "practice writing." From
the vantage point of this announcement two days later, that sounds coy, even
obtuse.

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paul
I love that PG thinks in historical terms. It's exciting to view yc as an
institution that could outlive all of us, just as the great universities have.

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ChrisNorstrom
But...but... Will PG still be at the interviews? I think that's what I'm
afraid of most with this change. Paul had a sort of incite about people. What
about Jessica Livingston? What if she follows. I'm happy for Sam and PG but, I
feel it just won't be the same without him doing interviews and reviewing
applications. Perhaps I'm being selfish (or have abandonment issues), I've
always dreamed of one day seeing him at the interview table, whether rejected
or accepted.

 _" they have 3 rooms [interviewing] at the same time. Each room has 2-3
partners in it. I got the one with Garry Tan and Paul Buchheit - it was super
chill. We had a great conversation. They didn't drill me (or interrupt me) or
anything. We covered most topics I wanted to cover. They let me guide the
conversation.

On the other hand, PG and Harj (and other partners / venture partners) are in
the two other rooms. Last year, I interviewed with PG (and 6 other people). It
was hell. They kept saying my idea was bad, and we were arguing (it turns out
that they were right...my idea was bad)."_

That's why I like PG, he's upfront and brutally honest.

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ulfw
Sam is a very intelligent, likeable and knowledgeable guy. Best man for the
job. Congrats!

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mathattack
Congrats! Big step up for him. Big step for PG too. I think the new division
of labor should allow each to specialize at what they're good at.

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dhruval
Congrats to Sam! I think

Looking forward to reading more thoughtful writing from PG. It has really
changed my perspective on things over the years.

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bane
Congratulations to all. I hope this means we'll see a bit more pg around here
too!

