[protortyp]

Can someone explain how Sam is able to run so many things at once? I am working on my startup and I barely find time to scroll HN during my toilet breaks.

[musicale]

Can someone explain why a public university is giving money to Sam Altman rather than the other way around?

Or is this the primary/hedge-fund part of the university rather than the professional sports organization or the vestigial academic departments?

[alephnerd]

Universities don't generate their operating budget on tuition alone. They need to use a mix of grantmaking, IP commercialization, investments, Federal tuition support, broadcast licenses, and (in UMich's case) some state government support to keep the lights on.

In UMich's case, the State of Michigan only covers 3% of the entire funding for UMich. The university needs to foot the bill for the remaining 97% on their own [0].

That's where endowments come in. By trying to be savvy with the rate of return on your endowment, you can create a self sustaining budget for your institution.

Also, UMich Ann Arbor's yearly budget is $10 Billion, but their endowment (aka their piggybank) is only $17 Billion. If they raided their piggybank, they could only keep the lights on for 2 years at most.

> professional sports organization or the vestigial academic departments

Professional Sports is self funded by the athletics department.

What's a "vestigial academic departments". For example, Computer Science was "vestigial" in most universities until the 1970s, often being a wonky major in the Math or Physics department. What makes you an arbitrator for what field is more important than others?

[0] - https://publicaffairs.vpcomm.umich.edu/key-issues/tuition/ge...

[tetrazine]

Because they believe they will turn a profit on the investment (in expectation). Next question

[itemize]

basically, univ can run a fund of funds with their endowment

[LarsDu88]

Lets go back to the beginning of YC. You can find a photo of the very first class. In that very first class, you'll see the AirBnb guys, the Twitch guys, the Reddit founders, and Sam frickin Altman. When you have 18 years of connections with virtually every successful YC startup, and happen to run the most disruptive company of the past 15 years, money and influence seeks you out.

[jakderrida]

Good answer. He basically fostered a reputation for having access to the connections you need. Same time, that don't mean he'll entertain any old idea. I thought he was lunatic for taking over at OpenAI and thought their idea was crazy. But he knew better than me.

[chaostheory]

Agree and you have a very reasonable comment, and I’m not sure why others don’t agree.

Just one possible correction: the AirBnB guys were about 4 years later than the 1st batch. I don’t think any of them were in the 1st batch with a different startup like the Twitch crew.

[stodor89]

Also Aaron Swartz, if we're thinking of the same photo. The world would no doubt be a better place if the powers that be hadn't suicided him.

[csomar]

He is just the face. He gets paid for bringing attention and creating a forward momentum to the companies. He has access to highly placed individuals too and that’s more important than you building an actual product in our economy.

[panic]

You’re doing it wrong. You need to get other people to do the actual work while you go out and get yourself involved in more things.

[behnamoh]

From "48 Laws of Power":

> Law 7: Get Others to Do the Work for You, but Always Take the Credit: Get others to do your work for you. Use their skill, time, and energy to further your ambitions while taking full credit. You’ll be admired for your efficiency.

[ldjkfkdsjnv]

he makes a few high level decisions a week/maybe less. hes never actually on the grind

[xenospn]

Most likely just delegates everything. It’s not possible to actually “run” large operations without effective delegation.

[lumost]

like having a very visible/active chairman of the board.

[colechristensen]

Do you have the money, connections, trust to hire someone to delegate 90% of the work you’re doing on your startup?

[unsupp0rted]

Probably a work number closer to 100% than to 90%

[vitorgrs]

For OpenAI, I'm pretty sure Greg that is really managing it most of the times?

Sam is more of an investor than anything else.

[whatshisface]

Your jobs are to found the company and Be The Founder, just imagine how many more companies you could found if you had people to do the former. (See also: Elon Musk.)