Well yeah, but being a CTO at a major org isn't exactly a low-paying gig.

The interesting thing to me is that the belief that Anthropic is going achieve something like AGI appears to have really spread through SV. If not AGI, at least greatly disturb their old cushy SaaS jobs.

Also, I still do believe some people just want to work on "cool" stuff.

edit: not just CTOs and CPOs, I mean John freakin Jumper, who got the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, left his VP role at DeepMind to have no reports, and be an IC at Anthropic.

I find this whole trend extremely interesting.

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cliglot 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> Also, I still do believe some people just want to work on "cool" stuff.

One thing I’ve noticed more and more is all the “cool” jobs require you to already be an established domain expert.

Another things I’ve noticed, and this is probably mostly just my opinions evolving, but all the “cool” stuff that catches my interest these days is not in software. Software is boring.

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satvikpendem an hour ago | parent [-]

What catches your interest these days?

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cliglot 36 minutes ago | parent [-]

I’ve been in a bit of creative/intellectual rut the last few years, but before that there were a handful of things that intrigued me in the last 5-10 years.

Most recently, I became interested in the field of photonics/optics, particularly in the field of novel optical communications research.

I’ve had mild interests in things like Biology and History since I was a child. The latter particularly hooked me a few years back.

Neuroscience is a pretty cool one as well. The human brain is of course one of the most fascinating pieces of hardware in existence and understanding it (to whatever level we currently can) is incredibly interesting to me.

At one point I thought about going into security research, but now that everyone and their mother is headed that direction, it’s become less feasible.

Unfortunately I don’t even have a bachelors degree, and most of the fields are research heavy and not very accessible to hobbyists, so my actual interaction with these things remains relegated to reading papers/pop sci articles/etc.

	▲	dieselgate 2 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Don't forget the study of neuroscience is much larger than just the human brain. Many other target organisms are studied e.g. fruit fly and are much more thoroughly understood on a fundamental level. Respectfully, when people want to understand the human brain they usually intend to study sociology or psychology rather than neuroscience. Although, of course, neuroscience is applicable to human brains as well.

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lacksconfidence 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I really don't think it's AGI. From living in the valley, it looks a whole lot more like giant piles of cash and "prestige".

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fidotron 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> If not AGI, at least greatly disturb their old cushy SaaS jobs.

I mean, this is happening right now.

I doubt there are few people talking to customers and potential customers that haven't run into the "look what I rolled last week with Claude" only for it to be legitimately impressive. The idea of technical moats is evaporating in front of our eyes.

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bdashdash 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The biggest AI bubble seems to be forming within the minds of the people working in SV itself, judging by the talk about the inevitability of AGI, the strong language around fomo (permanent underclass and all that) and the close proximity of the whole ecosystem there.

So wether it's belief in AGI or a desire for building cool stuff, as an outsider looking in, it seems to be informed by the same echo chamber of thought.