> Amodei, in one of his early notes, recalled pressing Brockman on his priorities and Brockman replying that he wanted “money and power.” Brockman disputes this. His diary entries from this time suggest conflicting instincts. One reads, “Happy to not become rich on this, so long as no one else is.” In another, he asks, “So what do I really want?” Among his answers is “Financially what will take me to $1B.”

I can't imagine having such uninspired thoughts and actually writing them down while in a role of such diverse and worthwhile opportunities. I'd like to ask "how the hell do these people find themselves in these positions", but I think the answer is literally what he wrote in his diary. What a boring answer. We need to filter these people out at every turn, but instead they're elevated to the highest peaks of power.

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ks2048 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's not surprising. I made this comment on HN before, but if you follow him on Twitter, it's pretty remarkable - the CTO of one of the most important technology companies in the world and he has never (that I've seen) posted something with some technical insight, or just anything interesting about technology. It's just boring truisms, cliches, empty statements, etc.

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chromacity 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Eh. It doesn't start or stop with people like Altman, Zuckerberg, or Nadella. I think it's a symptom of a broader problem in tech. Half the people on this site made a decision to work at companies that do shady things, and they did that to maximize personal wealth.

The difference isn't that the average techie doesn't dream of making a billion by any means necessary; it's that most of us don't think we have a shot, so we stick to enabling lesser evils to retire with mere millions in the bank.

	▲	skybrian 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I don't think it's all that hard to avoid working on anything shady. It's not as easy to avoid being associated with anything shady due to widespread cynicism and a tendency to treat tech companies with thousands of projects as a monolith.
	▲	3 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		[deleted]
	▲	ggregoire 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		> The difference isn't that the average techie doesn't dream of making a billion by any means necessary That's actually the difference, most people don't want a billion
	▲	bluefirebrand 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> The difference isn't that the average techie doesn't dream of making a billion by any means necessary I hope that's not true. If it is, we live in a bleak world indeed. I can confidently say I've never once dreamed of having billions. I've never wanted billions. Not even in a fanciful manner. What would I do with that money? Buy mansions and megayachts? That's loser stuff Most of what I want out of life cannot be bought. The pieces that come with a price tag, like a comfortable home, do not require billions I think only sociopaths want billions because they don't understand spending your life seeking things that actually matter, like family and human connection

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kevinqi 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

it is disappointing, but is it shocking that people most driven by gaining money/power are the ones the most successful at achieving it?

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steve_adams_86 4 hours ago | parent [-]

What sticks out to me most is that humanity consistently fails to weed these creatures out and regulate society. It's a bug in our social software; we seem to like these broken people rather than recognize that they're a liability.

	▲	hackable_sand 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Trust is not a bug You need to accept that every generation some people are going to try and fuck things up. Then you get to decide to stop or help them
	▲	basket_horse 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		This isn’t a bug. It’s the driving force of our capitalist society. We are not trying to weed them out. We are trying to encourage them. It’s pretty simple, when they get rich, so do all their investors.

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dolebirchwood 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Sociopaths don't have much going for them in life other than winning status games.

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buzzerbetrayed 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Sociopath is the next word that people seem to want to entirely destroy the meaning of

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dolebirchwood 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Struck a nerve?

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JumpCrisscross 4 hours ago | parent [-]

> Struck a nerve?

No need to be petty. They have a point. We did this with the words racist and fascist. Overinclusion diluted the term and gave cover for the actual baddies to come in. I'm not sure debating who is and isn't a sociopath is as useful as, say, the degree to which Sam is a liar (versus visible).

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greenchair 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Speaking of overinclusion, 'wild' is my nominee for 2026 as I'm seeing it all over the place.

	▲	JumpCrisscross an hour ago \| parent [-]
		> 'wild' is my nominee for 2026 I don't know how to define the delineation I'm about to propose. But there is a difference between overinclusivity trashing a morally-loaded, potentially even technical, term, and slang evolving.

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rexpop 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I'm sorry, we did what with the word "racist"?

	▲	JumpCrisscross 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> we did what with the word "racist"? “Overinclusion diluted the term and gave cover for the actual baddies to come in.” The next sentence.

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kakacik 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

While true and we can see them literally everywhere where there is some money and/or power (even miniscule places like classic banks have easily 1/3 of the staff with clear sociopathic traits, I have to deal with them daily... or whole politics) - thats just human nature, or part of it.

Its up to rest of society to keep them in check since classic morals are highly optional and considered nuissance blocking those games. And here we the rest fail pretty miserably, while having on paper perfect tool - majority vote.

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lokar 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Or, some fraction of otherwise good/normal people who “win” are turned into sociopaths by the power and sycophancy.

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xorgun 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]