Sam Altman on one of the highest-return years of his career: no job, exploring his interests, and a lot of people who were nice enough to teach him things. "I read many dozens of textbooks. I learned about fields that I had been interested in. I didn't have any idea that they were all gonna come together in the way they did." "I learned a lot about nuclear engineering. AI was starting to work, so I learned a lot about AI. I learned about synthetic biology. I learned about investing." " I met people that were working on all sorts of different things who were nice enough to talk to me." "If I met someone interesting and it seemed good and needed help, I would just help them. And they would teach me stuff, or they would offer me the chance to invest in their startup later." "Out of all of it, almost all of it didn't work out. But the seeds were planted for things that worked in deep ways later." @sama w/ @CraigCannon (Nov 2018)

accidentally said phone bot instead of voice agent and they kicked me out of SF

Arm wrestler is going viral after letting dad win in front of his daughter 💙

This is the earliest known video of Jeff Bezos. He’s 30. Unknown. Standing in a tiny room in Seattle in 1994. No hype. No predictions. No guru act. Just a young man pointing at his desk, a fax machine, and an orange extension cord because the room doesn’t have enough power - before the world decided to listen. Rare footage.

I once knew a recruiter who placed a SWE as a contractor at a large media / telecom company in Philly. They made huge gross margin, the candidate aced the interview and did a great job for a couple of years. Then it all came crashing down when the client went to convert the candidate full time. Why? Both the recruiter ended up finding out the candidate completely fabricated his work experience. The work experience the candidate entered for the background check was completely different than the information he entered for the contract role. Not just that, it was half of the experience. The offer ended up getting pulled, and the recruiter's company ended up getting kicked off the vendor list. It's crazy because had they just kept the candidate working as a contractor, he might still be working there as if nothing happened.

As a child I was always intrigued by seeing a game with reviews plastered all over it’s cover. And 9/10 they got the right to do that shit

I don't usually celebrate album anniversaries. I have a hard time perceiving the past. I like now, and what's to come. But this album, that turns 20 today, changed my life. I'd had success already, but everything clicked into place on this album. I met some of the greatest musicians and engineers in the world and learned so much about making records from them. When I think back on what made the album so special, some thoughts come to mind, and they're worth my remembering: Life came into the room. I rode bikes on the beach. I was goofy - most of the images from these years are of me doing something wacky. The record took time. Months of writing, giving up on lots of songs, writing new ones, moving studios, taking breaks. As I get older l tend to expect results faster. I get frustrated a little easier. But it's always been the same; you work weeks and months on songs. Some don't make it, but it's never a waste of time. You live more life, you write more songs, and the process starts again. You cherish the tight little list of tunes that matter. When just one joins the ranks, it's a blessing. Joy wins out over discouragement. You have fun with your friends, who are all on the journey of exploring the unknown with you. Great albums are built in layers. You have to become different versions of yourself to create a lasting body of work. Nobody cares how long it takes if the music is meaningful. If you want to make something truly special, you have to bring talented people in the room to contribute. Steve and Pino. Chad Franscoviak and Joe Furla engineering along with Don Smith and Dave O'Brien. Martin Pradler editing vocals. René Martinez handing me the guitar. Ricky Peterson on keys, @jamesbvalentine played some guitar on Stop This Train. Larry Goldings played B3 and @aliciakeys sang backgrounds on Gravity. Roy Hargrove played trumpet. Charlie Hunter played on In Repair. @BenHarper played slide guitar on Belief. Willie Weeks played bass with Pino on I Don't Trust Myself With Loving You. The right music with the right people at the right time in my life. That's all you can ever hope for. And thank YOU, dear reader, for giving life to these songs. Onward...