
How to Build the Future with Sam Altman - sandslash
https://www.ycombinator.com/future/sam/
======
koolba
> Jack: I'm Jack, Sam's brother, and we are here in our backyard, where we
> also live with our other brother.

Wait do all three of you live together in one house in your 30s? That's
awesome!

EDIT: _Just to be clear, this comment is in no way intended to be sarcastic! I
really think it 's amazing for three brothers to live together in their 30s.
The notion that each has to go their separate way after one turns 18/21/25 is
bullshit. Life is more fun together and there's inherent economies of scale as
well (both financial and social)._

~~~
chamakits
I agree. I'm from Puerto Rico, where I think it's more common to live and grow
up within driving distance of a big part of your family.

Now as an adult I've moved to the US, where it's much more common to move far
from your family. I grew up expecting that I would always have my close family
near, and I still struggle with the fact that's probably not going to be the
case.

I would absolutely love to live near or with my brother and parents still.
Definitely would need a way that would allow us to have private spaces when we
want, but I miss being able to see close family with just 30 minutes of
traveling.

~~~
icebraining
While the US has a more mobile population, most Americans still live within
half an hour of where they grew up:
[http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/12/24/upshot/24up-
fa...](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/12/24/upshot/24up-family.html)

~~~
chamakits
Oh, interesting! Don't know why I would have assumed it to be less than that.
Thanks for this article, good to learn something new.

------
omegant
The point about feeling drained when the startup is failing, and feeling
energized when you hit something people wants is spot on. My startup failed
(as most do) and since it happened I've felt that I was not made for business.
But recently I watched how my brother hit a strike with his company (still
small but people is super interested) and I see how that keeps you much more
energized. Maybe I'll try again soon, but this time I'm starting really small
till it takes traction on it's own(another usual tip I didn' listened the
first time...)

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sandslash
And here are the download links for the transcript and audio files if anyone
is interested in tuning in offline:

Transcript: [https://goo.gl/8z2h1b](https://goo.gl/8z2h1b)

Audio: [https://goo.gl/D8h0NU](https://goo.gl/D8h0NU)

~~~
ycliu
Here is a mind map version I made:

[https://milkr.io/yuecen/Sam-Altman-How-to-Build-the-
Future](https://milkr.io/yuecen/Sam-Altman-How-to-Build-the-Future)

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misiti3780
"One of the only arbitrage opportunities left is time." \- I like that, and
definitely believe it. First time I have heard it also.

~~~
westoncb
Could someone expand on that a little? (I'm assuming the intended definition
of 'arbitrage' here is along the lines of "The purchase of securities on one
market for immediate resale on another market in order to profit from a price
discrepancy.")

------
westoncb
I especially liked the point about not seeing criticism or lack of attention
as necessarily being red flags.

It's sort of counter-intuitive that this would be the case because after
something fairly radically new becomes popular there's so much positive said
about it.

It's an easy leap to assume that praise was always present, and that lack of
it in your case is a signal that what you're working on won't succeed—but it
seems like in actuality, when you're doing something novel enough people
aren't going to 'get it' immediately by definition.

It's also easy to assume that those you speak to about your work will approach
it with the optimism and energy with which you regard it, and without a little
optimism and sustained attention it's easy to miss the potential or even
comprehend the significance at all of some new idea.

Even having acknowledge this concept in the past, I still needed the reminder
in the video to see I was potentially making the mistake again in my own
project. It's a good point to remind yourself of periodically.

------
flyosity
I'm sure this will get downvoted into oblivion, but why should I or other
engineers/entrepreneurs look at Sam Altman as a massive startup success story
when his lone startup Loopt never really achieved product-market fit, and
ended up in a firesale?

Across 5 funding rounds, Crunchbase lists Loopt as having raised $39 million
and then was acquired (acqui-hired?) for $43 million. He didn't create any
multiples of value for his investors. Loopt wasn't a breakout hit like so many
other YC startups have been. It was certainly one of the first interesting
location-based apps in the App Store, but soon was surrounded by other
location-based apps and never really appeared to surface and gain traction.

Obviously Sam runs YC now and has dramatically improved it, but in the lens of
being an entrepreneur, isn't he still essentially unproven, and not a success
story in the startup world?

~~~
sama
I turned out to be a better investor than an entrepreneur (though somewhat to
my surprise running YC is more about running a company than being an
investor).

I think I've learned a lot from working closely with entrepreneurs that run
massively successful companies that's worth sharing.

If you disagree, no one is making you watch this. You're free to hit the back
button.

~~~
dota_fanatic
What's the purpose of your third line?

Obviously they didn't even click the link at all, but they had a legitimate
question to ask the community in hopes of learning more about why the content
is good. Your first two lines directly answer their questions, but the third
one just seems, well, immature?

~~~
dlo
It's very natural to feel a bit defensive in response to criticism of this
nature, which is actually an ad hominem. I don't know that many people would
have done better. I think we have to remember that even larger-than-life
characters like sama are also humans who feel emotions.

------
scobar
The part about risk resonated so much with me. I feel exactly the same way as
Sam now, but it's taken many years and experiences to arrive at that mindset.
I wonder if I would've taken his advice seriously when I was younger; it seems
contrary to the advice I (and many others I assume) received about risk.

To be clear, I suggest all young adults follow Sam's advice on risk.

------
davecyen
Main takeaway:

Work on something together w/ people you like and on an idea that you are
truly excited about and strongly opinionated on. Shit will get hard and most
people will quit too soon (esp if they don't like each other or don't care
about what they're doing). Don't be those people.

------
liquimoon
YC is producing lots of fluffy content lately.

I was very disappointed with the How to Build the Future series. Particularly,
the interview with Elon Musk. The quality of the questions was mediocre at
best.

And the podcasts are just about showcasing YC companies. As an entrepreneur, I
basically got zero value from these.

PG should write more essays. Whenever one of them came out, I dropped whatever
I was doing to read them.

~~~
scobar
This reply is very late and you may not see it, but I wanted to express my
thoughts.

I appreciate the way Sam presents his thoughts (questions, answers, or
otherwise). They're both extremely thoughtful and simple in a sense that he
won't repel those who may feel below his level intellectually. Some of his
points are so insightful, but it's taken me a lot of time, experience, and
thought to be able to absorb or agree/disagree with them. Some just seem like
simple advice that I should consider because I don't know enough to strongly
believe he's right or wrong.

Perhaps you're at a high enough level intellectually that his simply-stated
yet thoughtful points are, by now, obvious to you. I definitely don't mean to
imply otherwise. Unfortunately, I haven't found many writers whose thoughts
are as insightful as PG's, but I am content with rereading his old essays as
I'm certain I haven't thoroughly understood everything he's written at the
depth of understanding that he or others may have.

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Mz
Unfortunately, there is a bit too much unstated assumption of "just be lucky
(fortunate) as hell in multiple metrics from an incredibly young age." This
seriously undermines the value of this advice for at least 99% of people.

~~~
sama
Luck is a massive, massive factor in many ways, but I generally think you
should make decisions as if it weren't a factor.

~~~
Mz
While I agree that you should "plan for the worst, hope for the best," YC
started with a very idealistic concept that a couple of guys with a couple of
computers and a few thousand dollars could seek to be Ramen Profitable
(instead of seeking to be the next unicorn). You personally benefitted from
that philosophy. It would be nice if the tradition that YC is for the common
man with big dreams and little capital were continued.

------
icantdrive55
I think everyone should watch this video, it gets better near the end.

I think we need one of theses videos for the really poor kids. The kids who
barely finished college due to finances though.

He states his three factors to success are, 'focus, personal conviction, and
self belief'.

(Poor kids need to network. Poor kids need to make friends with rich kids.
Poor kids can't fail, and take a vacation to unwind. Poor kids, and by poor
kids, I mean generational poor. No wealthy grandparents, etc. My biggest
mistake was finding upper, middle class kids very shallow. I just couldn't be
around them growing up, and even in college. I would cringe when they talked
about their problems. I should have held my nose, and try to win their
company. I have no reason to lie. They will introduce you to people that have
money.)

He said work hard early on.

(Yes, but don't blow a gasket. I had a nervous breakdown in my late twenties.
Before that breakdown, I was doing what two people did. I literally felt like
nothing couldn't be accomplished. I felt like Superman. Everyone is different,
and you will statistically be fine. Just watch it.)

He talks a lot about failing, and why it's not a bad thing.

(That's great, but kids from a poor family only seem to have one big failure
in them. It usually involves financing from credit cards. I guess if you know
the right financiers, networked, or have family money failing/taking risk is
not financial suicide, or living in a box somewhere. Poor kids have the real
possibility of ending up homeless if they fail. There just a different mindset
when you come from nothing.)

"Successful people impact the world" I believe he said, 'Make the world a
better place.'

(That might be true for a handful, but let's get real; it's about making a lot
of money. It's about the paper.

I don't like it, but let's not romanize it--it's about making money. The
financially successful don't like to admit it.

And if you don't make money in life--there are more important things than
narcisstically making a lot of money. Being a good, moral person goes a long
way. Can attract the right girlfriend/boyfriend. It's not a crime to think
like Jesus did. It might talk you a long way?)

I think the best advice he gave was sticking with what you truly believe in.
Yes--there's Twitter, and other examples, but I believe it's good advice. Go
against the crowd caught my attention.

If YC is still funding founders after 10-14 failures; I'm very impressed with
the organization.

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lifeisstillgood
It strikes me you need to slice him thin and use a lot of glue and even then I
doubt you could build much more than a big yurt.

Maybe I need to read the article more carefully.

(A little more seriously the idea of finding the Venn overlap point between
Good At, Love Doing, Adds Value is nice. Does not help me find my next big
idea but at least is a filter)

------
razvan_ro
Why is Sam's brother the one interviewing him?? I find it slightly cringy.

What authority does he have / what has he done, that makes him a good
candidate to interview Sam? Is this meant to help shine some light on Sam's
brother and his startup?

~~~
daveguy
These are fairly standard questions for the "How to Build the Future"
series[0]. Sam normally does the interviewing, but in this case he had his
brother ask the questions. Sam has been asking a lot of entrepreneurs these
same questions (the Musk interview was particularly good[1]). Sam having his
brother ask those same questions of him didn't come across as particularly
cringy to me. It would have been more awkward if he read the questions and
then answered them.

[0][https://www.ycombinator.com/future/](https://www.ycombinator.com/future/)

[1][https://www.ycombinator.com/future/elon/](https://www.ycombinator.com/future/elon/)

