Three things we learned about Sam Altman by scoping his kitchen
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It's very clear to me that the article was write just to be funny and wholesome, though some irony does seep through.
Executive summary
1. He’s bad at olive oil
2. His coffee machine’s a Breville
3. There’s something off with his knife
I was very amused by the comments with regards to the coffee machine. It seems to have an optional Puck Sucker, which some argue is not an essential purchase. Bryce Elder, the author of the article, wonders if it's just that Sam Altman has particular affinity for suckers - wink, wink.
The final paragraph also packs a small sting because it quips about how the inefficiency with which Sam Altman runs his home kitchen might be an indicator for possible insolvency of OpenAI in the future.
Edit: Adding below segment about speculations as to what a person's actions might allow one to infer about their personality. Also, I updated the title of this post with what was added after the + sign.
Disclaimer: I am neither a professional psychiatrist or a therapist, nor do I have a reputation in my friend group of having good insights into the psychology of other people. So what follows is a layman's speculation.
Alfred Adler is know for his theory of individual psychology, which can be stated as:
The individual psyche is a unity, so a person's personality is revealed by anything they do, no matter how small.
Adler believed that most mental health issues were causes by people not knowing what they really want or not having the courage to pursue their true desires. So the most important thing was to teach people to be brave.
This is in contrast to Sigmund Freud, who believed that the id, ego and superego were not always aligned and that the resulting conflict was the cause of non-organic mental issues i.e. problems that could be solved by talk therapy. Freud's method, psychotherapy, was about getting these fragments of the psyche to get along.
For more details about Alfred Adler's theory and a Everest-size amount of interesting information about dynamic psychiatry - concerned with issues solved through talk therapy, as opposed to organic psychiatry, where problems are caused by physiological issues - I highly recommend the book The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry by Henri F. Ellenberger
When I view the article about Sam Altman through this lens and combine it with my priors about him and people in his position(high level management roles), it seems plausible that he exhibits a certain superficiality. As a CEO, he has to look at the bigger picture, so he's used to ignoring details, some of which might turn out to be important. Also, given OpenAI's activity, especially in recent years, he has certainly been very busy. So one can forgive him for not being fully thorough when thinking about his kitchen.
Sam Altman has been on paternal leave recently, so maybe he'll update his kitchen in a way that offers a more accurate view of his personality. But hopefully this will not happen at the expense of him spending quality time with his family.