Sam Altman on Loving Community, Hating Coworking, and the Hunt for Talent
Conversations with Tyler
Conversations with Tyler
4.8 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 27 February 2019
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Founders aren’t superheroes, says Sam Altman.They may play extreme sports, respond to emails within seconds, and start billion-dollar companies, but they are rarely the product of extraordinary circumstance. In fact, they tend to be solidly upper-middle class, reasonably smart, and with loving parents.
So would Sam fund Peter Parker? What about Bruce Wayne?
Tyler and Sam discuss these burning questions and more, including what’s wrong with San Francisco, Napoleon’s underrated skill, nuclear energy, the greatest invention of the Industrial Revolution, his rant against coworking spaces, UBI and AGI, risk and regret, optimism and beauty, and why venture capitalists don’t have superpowers either.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
Recorded January 28th, 2019
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, |
| 0:08.4 | bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems. |
| 0:12.6 | Learn more at mercatis.org. |
| 0:15.2 | And for more conversations, including videos, transcripts, and upcoming dates, visit |
| 0:20.4 | ConversationsWithT Tyler.com. |
| 0:33.4 | Sam needs no introduction. |
| 0:36.7 | If we read the tech press and listen to other people's podcasts, what's the single most |
| 0:43.1 | likely misconception about venture capital? |
| 0:45.3 | They're going to have. |
| 0:46.5 | Did venture capitalists are on the whole smart visionaries who know exactly what's going |
| 0:50.6 | to happen in the world? |
| 0:52.1 | The trick about the way you become really great at venture capital is to accept that |
| 0:56.5 | the only way to figure out the future of the world is to identify incredibly talented, |
| 1:01.1 | smart, creative, original thinkers, and back those people. |
| 1:05.1 | And you have to trust that that will work out over time. |
| 1:09.3 | You can't just be the smartest person all of the time. |
| 1:11.8 | So if I'm trying to place your view in contrast with others, your view on how to |
| 1:16.3 | spot and identify in mobileized talent compared to Mark Andreessen, is there any difference |
| 1:20.9 | how would I place you to? |
| 1:22.3 | Well, I do have my own strong views about where the world is going to go and what's important |
| 1:26.7 | to support. |
| 1:28.2 | And I think it is important to have strong views about the world and it's a shame that |
... |
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