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Sam Altman says Paul Graham and Peter Thiel taught him a key lesson about investing

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that he learned "the best investment opportunities are almost never the ones that look really popular."

Sam Altman says Paul Graham and Peter Thiel taught him a key lesson about investing

TL;DR

  • Sam Altman credits Paul Graham and Peter Thiel with teaching him the value of investing in unpopular opportunities.
  • He believes that truly spectacular success in investing comes from deviating from popular trends.
  • Altman compares the guidance startup investors provide to that of a flight instructor, emphasizing hands-on help.
  • The scramble for compute resources after developing GPT-4 reminded Altman of early-stage startup fundraising challenges.
  • Securing necessary resources, like compute, often involves facing numerous rejections before finding a few crucial 'yeses'.