Comment by tyre
6 days ago
The post itself is authentic in that it's a set narrative for this moment. When you see the world as Sam does, this event is a specific opportunity to humanize him. Through that lens, the humility is both performative (it is!) and necessary. To be truthful would be inauthentic.
The sympathy is meant to give time and slack to accumulate power. One of the largest impediments to OpenAI right now is that people don't trust them, more and more people don't trust Sam, and their commitments are starting to not pan out (e.g. cancelling of Stargate UK, dropped product lines, etc.)
People should not read a post like this as, "how does this make me feel? how might I respond in his situation?", but rather, as he does, "how can I use this?"
You say “the post itself is authentic” and then go on to give a great explanation of exactly why I think it’s inauthentic. I think we just have different definitions of the word “authentic.”
Yes, that’s fair. A friend once asked what the distinction is between authentic and genuine. This is, I think, a great example.
The piece is authentic—as in, “that’s so Sam!”—but not genuine, as in, “I don’t believe he’s reflecting his intentions.”
This could be splitting hairs, I don’t know. The terms are different in my head but rarely do I come across an instance where it’s at all clear how.