People Watching

Jeremi flies 300 miles to ask Sam Altman a question; Luca sees various people from across his life

Welcome back to Jeremi and Luca’s Newsletter, an update every Sunday from two friends connected by a relentless desire to learn.

And Happy Father’s Day! Shayne (Jeremi) and Doug (Luca) are the best, and we had a ton of fun surfing with them in Costa Rica last March.

Spending time with the fathers in Costa Rica

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Luca: People

This week was full of seeing people from across my life.

On Sunday, I had brunch with someone whom my older sister and I went to boarding school with. Monday, I got dinner with Berkeley consulting club friends. Tuesday, the “Museum Mile Festival” with a friend from the camp I grew up going to in Maine.

Then Caroline (my girlfriend who is spending the summer working at home in Chicago) arrived on Friday for a weekend visit—lots planned for that!

Friday evening, we saw The Beach Boys perform live, which was awesome. Mike Love and Bruce Johnston head up the band, and John Stamos was performing with them that night. A nice tribute for Brian Wilson, too, who just passed away last week.

Saturday, the best bagels I’ve had at PopUp Bagels in Brooklyn, another “best meal of my life” (but this time for real) at a Korean handroll tasting menu restaurant, and the new Stranger Things prequel play on Broadway.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden, a food market in Prospect Park, and the New York Transit Museum were on Sunday, all per the recommendation of my grandmother, who grew up just a few miles away from where I’m living this summer.

It was a great weekend, and really nice to see Caroline. Now back to work. Having a fantastic time in New York. Made better by the people here—the food helps too.

Caroline in NYC!

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Jeremi: Person

Here’s how I met Sam Altman—founder and CEO of OpenAI—and what I asked him.

Context

I have been interested in hacker houses and communal living for a few years now. The idea: live in a house with founders, interns, and researchers. Bounce ideas off each other, work together, maximize serendipity.

A few weeks ago, I applied to a network of houses called The Residency—they have homes in the Bay Area, New York, Boston, and Europe. I initially wanted to live in their home in San Francisco, but ended up being placed in the one in Berkeley. I’ll move in today, actually! One thing I found interesting (but didn’t make note of at the time): Sam Altman is an advisor for their community.

Monday, June 9

I get an email: Sam Altman is coming to the hacker house on Thursday for a fireside chat. I’m shocked, excited, giddy. But there are two issues.

1. I have a final the day before (Wednesday) and the day after (Friday). This event is up in San Francisco, slotted in between those two exams. I could make it, but the timing would be tough.

2. The maximum capacity at the event is 60 people, while the community throughout all hacker houses is 200 people. Nick, the person running the show, emphasized that attendance would be decided based on past participation in the community. I haven’t even moved in yet.

Regardless, I decide to shoot Nick an email. A small thing I’ve learned: all the systems I’ve encountered are just people. Rules are made by people. Those rules are enforced by people. They’re broken by people. At the end of the day, whether or not I could go to this fireside chat was entirely based on a person, not the rule that had been stated.

Tuesday, June 10

I get an email back—I’m in. The question now: do I go for it? On face value, it sounds kind of ridiculous: do an 8 hour round trip in the middle of finals week, just to meet and have an interaction with one person? But it interested me for several reasons.

First of all: Sam Altman is very impressive, but I don’t really understand how he is so successful. Other founders have very recognized traits that their success is attributed to. Sam is more of a mystery. How did he make OpenAI into the leader that it is?

Also, I think the other 59 people at this event would be very interesting to talk to! My purpose of living in the hacker house is largely to become involved with the startup and tech community in the Bay. I want to meet people interested in AI. I think this event would be a good place to do so (and turns out I was not the only one to fly in for this event).

Thursday, June 11

As I’m boarding the plane to SF, I pull out my laptop. I want to write down my intentions for tonight. A part of me, admittedly, is excited about this event because of what it sounds like. Getting to say “I met Sam Altman.”

I don’t like this motivation—I usually learn less from these sorts of events when my ego is involved. I’m not connected to my curiosity and what I’m trying to learn; I’m focused on how other people perceive me. If I interact with Sam, does he get the impression that I’m smart? Do other people get this impression? This is counterproductive—I both come off as less genuine, and I’m focused on myself when the whole point is to learn and hear from other people.

***

My flight lands in the afternoon, so I show up early and hang out with some of the residents before the event. One person is building a startup that grows brain organelles and tests psychedelic drugs on those organelles. We do activities like going around in a circle and speed pitching a biotech business idea. Then, the house starts to fill up. Sam is arriving.

He’s certainly thoughtful. He has a few points he makes throughout the night that I jot down:

• Next gains in AI will come from the scaffolding around models rather than the models themselves

• He thinks partial re-programming will likely prevent most death of old age

• Do hard things where you can learn fast

Someone comes up to say 5 minutes are left. Everyone submitted questions before the event, and Nick had let me know that he was going to call on me at some point to ask my question. I was wondering now: would I still get the chance to ask Sam something?

Right when I think it’s going to end, Nick calls my name. Sam turns and looks at me. I say:

“It seems that talent is pretty well distributed across all the large players in AI. A lot of them are better funded then OpenAI is. And yet, OpenAI has managed to run away with this market, and offer the best models. How? What is OpenAI’s edge?”

He responds (I’m paraphrasing):

“We stay ahead because we’ve built a system of repeatable innovation, and the other players copy us. Fifteen years ago, everyone was building a social or mobile startup. The world didn’t need another one of these, but it was where people were building. It was really hard to build an AI research lab back then. Or a fusion startup. I think in general, people would be better off pursuing their convictions rather than following what other people are doing.”

Finally, Nick asked Sam if he had any asks of us that he wanted to make, either something he wanted from us, or a way he wanted us to go out into the world. He said:

“Work on hard things that wouldn’t come into the world unless you were there to make them happen. Things that others wouldn’t have the passion for, or be able to make successful.”

Sam (grey sweater) with our group of 60 in SF. I’m in the back right corner, if you can spot me.