The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future
by Keach Hagey · 19 May 2025 · 439pp · 125,379 words
running Airbnb. His mentor, Paul Graham, years later turned a subsequent speech by Chesky about that approach into a viral meme with an essay titled “Founder Mode.” Afterwards, as the pink sunset gave way to a star-flooded Idaho sky, Chesky gathered at a picnic table with Altman, Pichai, and a few
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Algernon” (Keyes), 140 Foo Camp, 63 Forbes (magazine), 257 Foreign Affairs (journal), 267 Foresight Institute, a technology think tank, 144 Forstall, Scott, 112, 114, 116 “Founder Mode” (Graham), 263 founders as kings, 6, 60, 65, 68, 70–75, 95 Founders at Work (Livingston), 63, 64 Founders Fund venture firm, 2, 6, 132
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, 13–16, 62–65, 67–76, 81–82, 94, 136, 149, 151, 186, 263 “A Unified Theory of VC Suckage,” 72–73 “Collison installation,” 246 “Founder Mode,” 263 “How to Start a Startup,” 69–70 painting’s influence on, 67–69 see also Y Combinator (YC) graphical user interfaces, 195 graphics processing