I am first and foremost an engineer (I’m also the CTO of a very small startup studio and, so, also do a lot of business-y things). I traditionally despise “we are all a big family” work culture. Nonetheless, I think it’s foolish to not understand the power of people with the right charisma and driving force.
The halo effect, the reality distortion field, whatever you wanna call it, is quite real. It makes people go above and beyond. Some people are just very good at this, it’s almost innate to them. I’m not saying we should glorify them or not hold them accountable, but to think that a business person leaving, as opposed to an engineer, is not grounds to “freak out” is, to me, a bit naive.
I have had the pleasure of working with business people just like that. Very little engineering background, but they were born leaders and motivators. Just like on a smaller scale you can get the same vibe from certain engineers. Those guys and gals that make you feel like you’ll pull through no matter what.
Seems to me like Sam Altman has that kind of vibe. For better or worse, he drives people!
We often forget that it is people that build software. Not algorithms or robots. And who moves the people to build that software and to never give up? Other people, leaders — engineers or not.
What am I missing here: Sam Altman has zero charisma or cool factor. Every talk I've seen him in, he comes off as lethargic and sluggish. I get zero sense of passion or rallying drive around the hype of AI from him. Maybe he's good at fudging numbers to a specific set of people in a private room, but as a "reality distorter" for the masses he seems like a joke.
Perhaps he is not a reality distorter for the masses, but he is for the ones that work under him?
Clearly several people felt strongly about him enough to threaten (and go through with!) resignations.
Do the recent developments of around 700 in 770 people calling for board resignation answer this in your opinion?
I am genuinely asking for your view, not trying to sound sarcastic, as you may consider that this is just a vague threat and doesn’t count. To me it does, although obviously I wouldn’t say 700/770 is that fraction. The fraction of people feeling strongly about him in particular is a subset of this. It must be lower, but I’d say still quite significant — definitely above 20% of the company if I had to bet!!
