During a Y Combinator event, Sam Altman reflected on a key inflection point in the founding and success of OpenAI. Gary Tan, the current President of Y-Combinator, asked Altman about a seemingly small decision that had massive implications. Altman said, “Just deciding to do it was a big one. We got very close to not starting OpenAI. AGI sounded crazy. I had Gary's job then, and there was all this other great stuff to do that would work, all these great startups, and AGI was a pipe dream, and even if it was possible, DeepMind seemed impossibly far ahead.”
In other words - change can be difficult, but when you already have a great career and are facing an insurmountable task, taking the leap can be even harder. Despite this decision, Altman ultimately made the leap and started the company billions of people around the world use.
