at this point it's beyond clear that assigning even the most cynical motives you can imagine to anything Altman does is likely underplaying what's really going on<p>(in my opinion)
> <i>[flagged] Sam Altman: Long con was "child's play for me" (reddit.com) 160 points by upwardbound 1 hour ago | ...| 40 comments</i><p>Incidentally, in the comments here, `upwardbound` had an interesting plausible take on this familiar link. <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41657334">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41657334</a>
OP you can link comments with context<p><a href="https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3cs78i/whats_the_best_long_con_you_ever_pulled/cszwpgq/?context=3" rel="nofollow">https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3cs78i/whats_the...</a>
Altman is basically a younger Elon. He failed to build his own company Loopt, already has disturbing allegations against him from a family member who I absolutely believe, and lied under oath.<p>I expect grand promises, nothing delivered, and a personal enrichment agenda that harnesses a cult of idiots while ruthlessly silencing/bankrupting critics.
I don't know how much I believe this.<p>One thing that successful people are often good at is taking their good luck and portraying it as a genius master-stroke of planning that no-one could have foreseen.<p>Claiming to have actually <i>engineered</i> the string of leadership crises that engulfed Reddit is a bit far-fetched, and I suspect just bragging and taking credit for something that just happened.<p>Did they ultimately benefit from those crises? Clearly, they were opportunistic.<p>But actually engineering that as some kind of master-plan comes across to me as an attempt to puff up their ego.<p>It comes across as sociopathic regardless of how much is fact or fiction.
How odd. Since yesterday I've bin thinking about him, that he might become the greatest con man of the century. Something along the lines, that, once OpenAI has archived AGI, he will keep it to himself in the sense that it will only be able to do what he wants us to be able to do with it, and to shape it so that it benefits him and only him.<p>Then there's also the possibility that, if he starts to feel "not liked" by the population, that he'll go into full Elon Musk mode and use his power to become the greatest pal of Elon and Trump and use the tools to suppress what he doesn't like, as a retaliation for the lack of love. If you look at his interviews, he barely shows friendly emotions, as if he's got some empathy-problem.<p>It could become quite dangerous.
With 144 points, this story suddenly went from being ~#12 on the front page to now being #70, on page 3. If any journalists or regulators are reading this I recommend that possible astroturfing behavior (collusive downvoting (flagging)) be investigated, and I'm happy to cooperate with any investigation if contacted.
Ah, I see. So, what they're suggesting is that, nine years later, he's either done the exact same thing, is about to do it, or is in the process of doing it. It feels like a repeat of the past, almost like we're watching the same playbook unfold again.
Thread context: <a href="https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3cs78i/whats_the_best_long_con_you_ever_pulled/cszwpgq/?context=3" rel="nofollow">https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3cs78i/whats_the...</a><p>HN removes the "?context=3" when submitting the link as a post, which is why I have to put it here in a comment.<p>Credit to dalant979 for surfacing this, which they did here: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41652513">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41652513</a>