13 Comments
Nov 22, 2023Liked by Packy McCormick

"...the importance of aligning your aspirations and your capabilities" - Absolutely spot on. I think what most people get wrong is not objectively assessing their actual abilities before setting goals.

The truth is, our aspirations rarely manifest not because our dreams lacked grandiosity, but because those dreams bore little semblance to our present-day abilities in the first place.

Vision locked in misalignment with reality risks disillusion, wasted effort chasing pipe dreams far exceeding our reach. But vision married to an accurate map of our capabilities can chart a path forward that elevates performance to turn lofty goals into tangible results.

Expand full comment
Nov 22, 2023Liked by Packy McCormick

Great insightful piece. Thanks for sharing it. The sentence “They came at the king, and missed, and made him the Emperor. “ couldn’t be more true, and it surely will leave a mark.

Expand full comment
Nov 22, 2023Liked by Packy McCormick

Totally agree, but you did not mention the collateral damage to our University system.

These academic perpetrators, with the rippling waves of WSJ headlines, have displayed their

incompetence to run a corporation, prompting the question in the minds of many paying tuition,

"What else are they incompetent at?" (Forgive the ending preposition, I've joined the working class.)

In corporate America, when the board has the votes to fire the boss, they all talk together privately,

then the boss announces he is stepping down to spend more time with family.

These geniuses, living in an alternate universe, jumped out and yelled, "Surprise!" on a Friday afternoon, when the market was still open.

With high, altruistic intentions, they jeopardized the careers of thousands of employees, not to mention the pensions of millions.

(Can you think of a pension fund, which does not include Microsoft--including University pensions.

You will argue that 13 Billion is lunch money for Microsoft, but there is a principal of responsibility involved.)

Did America need such a drama to prove that academics are totally unaware of the dull nuts-and-bolts

of the real world where students will have to work in the future?

Expand full comment
Nov 24, 2023Liked by Packy McCormick

very well crafted essay. Really enjyed it ;-)

Expand full comment

Thank you for a piece that provides just as much insight as it does inspiration.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend :)

Expand full comment
Nov 22, 2023Liked by Packy McCormick

Just red this article in WaPo right after your post: "Sam Altman’s been fired before. The polarizing past of OpenAI’s reinstated CEO."

Header reads: "Before OpenAI, Altman was asked to leave by his mentor (Paul Graham, my note) at the prominent start-up incubator Y Combinator, part of a pattern of clashes that some attribute to his self-serving approach."

Paul G had not been public about this until today. The article details aspects of Sam's personality that provide yet another perspective on the OpenAI sitcom.

Expand full comment

Loved this breakdown. 🔥

I feel there’s probably another analysis to be done on the doomer type and elitism. How that feeling of being an elite blinds them to something as simple as “the will of the people.”

“They didn’t realize that OpenAI is nothing without its people.”

Expand full comment
Nov 22, 2023Liked by Packy McCormick

Since we're sighting Little Finger, we should remember that he endeavored to generate Chaos to find that 'ladder' he sought. He wasn't hanging out waiting for ladders.

Expand full comment

Retrofitting grant strategy to what happened with OpenAI and Sam Altman seems far fetched. All of this looks like an internal point of view, what would employees think, investors think. I think the long term effect might be people who are actually using the product might loose faith in the fragility of the leadership structure and the fake altruism popularise by Silicon Valley.

Expand full comment

Caesar Seriously? lol!

Expand full comment