Jan Traflet

Business historian, author, Bucknell professor.

[Sam Altman @sama]

i just posted this note to openai:

Hi All–

Mira has been instrumental to OpenAI’s progress and growth the last 6.5 years; she has been a hugely significant factor in our development from an unknown research lab to an important company.

When Mira informed me this morning that she was leaving, I was saddened but of course support her decision. For the past year, she has been building out a strong bench of leaders that will continue our progress.

I also want to share that Bob and Barret have decided to depart OpenAI. Mira, Bob, and Barret made these decisions independently of each other and amicably, but the timing of Mira’s decision was such that it made sense to now do this all at once, so that we can work together for a smooth handover to the next generation of leadership.

I am extremely grateful to all of them for their contributions.

Being a leader at OpenAI is all-consuming. On one hand it’s a privilege to build AGI and be the fastest-growing company that gets to put our advanced research in the hands of hundreds of millions of people. On the other hand it’s relentless to lead a team through it—and they have gone above and beyond the call of duty for the company.

Mark is going to be our new SVP of Research and will now lead the research org in partnership with Jakub as Chief Scientist. This has been our long-term succession plan for Bob someday; although it’s happening sooner than we thought, I couldn’t be more excited that Mark is stepping into the role. Mark obviously has deep technical expertise, but he has also learned how to be a leader and manager in a very impressive way over the past few years.

Josh Achiam is going to take on a new role as Head of Mission Alignment, working across the company to ensure that we get all pieces (and culture) right to be in a place to succeed at the mission.

Kevin and Srinivas will continue to lead the Applied team.

Matt Knight will be our Chief Information Security Officer having already served in this capacity for a long time. This has been our plan for quite some time.

Mark, Jakub, Kevin, Srinivas, Matt, and Josh will report to me. I have over the past year or so spent most of my time on the non-technical parts of our organization; I am now looking forward to spending most of my time on the technical and product parts of the company.

...

Leadership changes are a natural part of companies, especially companies that grow so quickly and are so demanding. I obviously won’t pretend it’s natural for this one to be so abrupt, but we are not a normal company, and I think the reasons Mira explained to me (there is never a good time, anything not abrupt would have leaked, and she wanted to do this while OpenAI was in an upswing) make sense. We can both talk about this more tomorrow during all-hands.

Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication.

Sam

[Ostium @Ostium]

Gold trading at all time highs

[The Business History Conference @TheBHCNews]

🚨 Upcoming deadline! ⏰ 👀
Apply for the #finhis Henry Kaufman Financial History Research Fellowships before 📅 May 1 2024 https://t.co/0D57QpQsQi

Meet fellow recipients (interviews) @paulavedoveli @robertyee_ @UzielGonzalezA @OttomanChoon @mthosman @michael_a_leger

[Jan Traflet @JanTraflet]

What’s happening to Columbia??

[Jake Tapper 🦅 @jaketapper]

In response to “horrific” scenes of antisemitic harassment at and around campus, the Orthodox Rabbi at Columbia/Barnard sent a WhatsApp message to more than 290+ Jewish students this morning recommending that they go home until it’s safe again for them on campus:

[Christine Benz @christine_benz]

The more I think about the idiotic inefficiency of employers all building their own 401(k) plans—and the huge variations in plan quality—the madder I get. Good piece from ⁦@RetireRevised⁩ ⁦@nytimes⁩ https://t.co/ul5qxuOvHF

[Financial Times @FT]

Just in: BlackRock has hit record assets under management, powered by equity markets and the popularity of a new spot bitcoin exchange fund https://t.co/Otsp3E3XDR

[Jan Traflet @JanTraflet]

“Pajjuri reiterated the firm's Strong Buy rating on Nvidia and raised its price target to $1,100 from $850.” Note that Nvidia is already up more than 19,000% in 10 years…amazing!

[The AI Investor @The_AI_Investor]

Read more: https://t.co/BaR8KK4urT

[Jan Traflet @JanTraflet]

@mktodsen @SullyCNBC Good point, and more geographical diversity has other advantages as well. Think of the massive spreading out beyond traditional Wall St of financial firms post 911, to reduce risks.

[Jan Traflet @JanTraflet]

@NYHistory Love this pic—and all the guys with ties on the beach! :)

[The New York Historical @NYHistory]

🌑🌕 Getting psyched for the solar eclipse today?
⁣
Don't forget your eclipse glasses—like the ones shown in these archival photos from our collection. The Fowler family watched the solar eclipse together on a beach in Cape Cod on August 31, 1932.⁣

[Jan Traflet @JanTraflet]

@JosephBottum @jennfrey @PatrickDeneen Well-said!

[Jan Traflet @JanTraflet]

Agree!

[Jennifer A. Frey @jennfrey]

If you want to save journalism, shut down j-schools and have future journalists study history, philosophy, political theory, etc. or make such courses or study the essence of a j-school.

[Jan Traflet @JanTraflet]

Looks like a great opportunity!

[Jennifer A. Frey @jennfrey]

🚨The Honors College is hiring🚨

I am looking for PhDs in philosophy, literature, classics, history or related fields who are passionate about traditional liberal arts education.
https://t.co/KJysxdcIEu

[Jan Traflet @JanTraflet]

@jennfrey This looks like an absolutely wonderful opportunity for the right person! Kudos to you for this initiative overall!

[NYSE 🏛 @NYSE]

NYSE is pleased to announce it will be hosting a U.S. Equity Microstructure Meets AI Conference on Nov. 11, 2024.

For more information on the conference, how to submit a paper for consideration, and to register ⤵️

[Jan Traflet @JanTraflet]

Meme Stock Analysis 101…lol!! Thanks Matt Levine!

[BuccoCapital Bloke @buccocapital]

Matt Levine on the current state of the market

[Jan Traflet @JanTraflet]

@NYHistory Always was fascinated by Madam Walker’s incredible success journey…big thanks to the NYHS for spreading her story to a broader audience!

[Jan Traflet @JanTraflet]

Bogle’s index fund idea initially was criticized as “un-American”, as an index seeks to mimic not exceed the underlying benchmark.

[TheMoTrades @TheMoTrades]

When Bogle launched the first S&P500 index fund, it was met with hard criticism and inflows were pretty anemic. While the BTC etf launch has been wildly successful through the first few weeks, I get the impression that people are underestimating its long-term impact because the inflows haven't translated to a higher price. Let's revisit this when the $GBTC outflows grind to a halt. #BTC

[Jan Traflet @JanTraflet]

@TheMoTrades Very thoughtful analogy!

[Jan Traflet @JanTraflet]

@TheMoTrades Very thoughtful analogy!