OpenAI's CEO on What Kids Should Be Studying

what do you think kids should be

studying these days resilience

adaptability a high rate of learning

creativity certainly familiarity with

the tools so should kids still be

learning how to code cuz I've heard

people say don't need to learn how to

code anymore just math just biology well

I'm biased because I like coding but I

think you should learn to code I don't

write code very much anymore although I

randomly did yesterday but learning to

code was great as a way to learn how to

think and I think coding will still be

important in the future it's just going

to change a little bit or a lot we have

a new tool what are we all going to do

when we have nothing to do I don't think

we're ever going to have nothing to do I

think what we have to do may change you

know like what you and I do for our jobs

would not strike people from a few

thousand years ago as real work but we

found new things to want and to do and

ways to feel useful to other people and

get fulfillment and create and that will

never stop but probably I hope if we can

look at the world a few hundred years in

the future be like wow those people have

it so good I can't believe they call the

stuff work it's so true need motivation

watch a top 10 with believe Nation hey

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celebrate with you so today let's learn

from one of the best Sam Alman and our

take on his top 10 we'll of success

believe rule number two is chart your

own course one of the most important

things I believe about having an

impactful career is you have to chart

your own course if if the thing that

you're thinking about is something that

someone else is going to do anyway or

more likely something that a lot of

people are going to do anyway um you

should be like somewhat skeptical of

that and I think a really good muscle to

build is coming up with the ideas that

are not the obvious ones to say rule

number three is help others how do you

advise people to select sort of who

they're working on things with um this

is this is really hard uh finding your

tribe finding the sort of people that

you end up working with on and off for

the rest of your career is is really

hard uh I think I'll tell you some

things I've learned and I will admit

that I don't have a perfect answer to

this yet but I think one thing is you

should be willing to move um for

whatever you're doing there tend to be

pockets of it around the world where

there are similar people uh that are

doing great work in whatever Feld you

care about and it's really worth trying

to go be be near them

um and so you know we get criticized

sometimes at YC for having people move

to the Bay Area but bringing people

together that are interested in the

similar thing of startups I think has

been really valuable for for a lot of

people I think another thing that I have

learned is that um whenever I've helped

people for for no immediate benefit uh

with no intention of ever getting a

benefit at all uh time and again in my

career it has really later benefited me

a lot so I think uh you at some point

often get to a point in your career

where you're you're limited by how many

good people you know and and how many of

those you can work with or get to do

things that uh uh together and so find

just helping a lot of people and

spending a lot of time with a lot of

people uh has benefited me you know

years after I've really helped someone

for no reason I get to invest in their

startup and it goes on to be a huge

success uh or were able to like work on

open AI together any number of things um

I think just trying to help a lot of

people and out of that scene who is

really impressive and who gets things

done uh is helpful rule number four is

maximize your time focusing more

specifically on productivity like what

are some life hacks that maybe you apply

to make your everyday more

productive um I think there's like a lot

of crap written about productivity

secrets on the internet and people sort

of like get into this thing where they

spend more time like trying to be

productive about their productivity

system and actually getting things done

um I I will say I think

that well I'll say two I think pieces of

advice that aren't that obvious um one

is I think far more important than any

particular system is just figuring out

the right things to work on and so all

of the time that people spend with like

this new productivity app or that or

whatever would be better spent like

really trying to think diligently

about I have the same number of of hours

as anybody else what am I going to spend

them on and getting that right is more

important than exactly like being

perfectly productive with those hours

um a big part of that is not doing

things that waste time uh I think if you

can just like focus on the things that

are important and not do the things that

waste time um you can be fairly sloppy

with productivity otherwise and you will

still get far more done than most people

um it's it's really hard to do though

the other thing that I think people

don't think about enough is figuring out

your own personal like rhythms of

productivity um and there's huge

variants I've notic between people that

figure this out and don't um so like for

me personally it turns out that I am

most productive if I go to sleep late

wake up late and then keep the first

like 3 or 4 hours of the day and don't

schedule any meetings like work from

home like get through my list of stuff

then and then like pack all my meetings

when I'm kind of less productive at just

grinding stuff out or thinking

creatively in the afternoon um and like

it took me some number of years to

figure that out cuz it didn't like fit

well with the work schedule I was

naturally in but then I was like all

right if this is like the thing to that

makes me most productive then I'm going

to like make my whole schedule work to

support that and that was like a really

important change for me um so I think

figuring out your own personal like

Optimal times to work on what kind of

different things uh people don't really

talk about that much and at least for me

it had a huge impact imp also to make

sure you're actually taking action after

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the worksheet will also give you space

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momentum in your life and your business

I'll see you there rule number five is

find your intersection could you talk a

little bit about how to pick what's

important to work on yeah um I I think

you want to look for the intersection of

what you're good at what you enjoy and

and what where you can create value for

the world and in my experience if you

don't find me the intersection of those

three it's hard to really have an impact

I think most people kind of just fall

into what they work on they don't give

it much thought and there is benefit to

that uh sometimes you actually have to

just try stuff to figure out what you

like but I really do think it is worth

upfront thought about what you're going

to spend most of your waking time doing

so I think it's really good when people

think about what they're good at what

they like and and kind of how they can

create value for the world rule number

six is think ahead share with us kind of

your thoughts on what this future AI

looks like you see it a lot in the

business and B2B environments you know

accounts payable accounts rece able open

AI that kind of stuff but where what

what direction are you guys headed in I

mean we we we have figured out how to

make legitimate intelligence in a

computer it's not not a parlor trick it

actually learns it actually can like

combine Concepts and novel ways it can

it can figure out new things uh and this

you know you can see this now starting

to really take effect with some of our

products we have something called

co-pilot with Microsoft um Developers

that use that it's now writing half

their code there's an AI doing half of

people's jobs we have another thing

called Dolly which does uh generates

images and uh there's a lot of benefits

to that it's you know generating tens of

millions of images a day for people um

but that's doing like all of

illustrators jobs uh so this is like and

then you have our text models like gpt3

and beyond that are doing a very wide

array of tasks but but we have actually

figured out how to put humanlike

cognition into a computer and that I

think will be the most significant shift

probably that we see in our lifetimes of

the technological landscape I think this

will be bigger than any of the great

technological Revolutions of the past

like this will be bigger than the

Industrial Revolution it will change

every aspect of society

and I think it's going to be on the

whole just tremendously good but but it

will certainly be a disruptive time rule

number seven is take no shortcuts how do

you hire how do you hire great teams

the folks have interacted with Open the

Eyes some of the most amazing folks I've

ever met it takes a lot of time like I I

spend I mean I think a lot of people

claim to spend a third of their time

hiring I for real truly do um I still

approve every single hired open the eye

and I think there's you know we're

working on a problem that is like very

cool and that great people want to work

on we have great people and some people

want to be around them but even with

that I think there's just no shortcut

for putting a ton of effort into

this so even when you have the good the

good people hard work I think so rule

number eight is make long-term

commitments I think that one of the few

Arbitrage opportunities left in the

market is time I think we have gotten

really good at high frequency trading um

we have gotten really good at the price

of things and we've have gotten worse at

the long-term value

and I I don't think you can go beat the

market in a lot of ways um but the one

way I do is is by making a long-term

commitment to something I think

that I my new belief on how long I

should hold stock in the best companies

I invest in is forever um and I think

you know in a world where people are

increasingly focused on the tick and the

quarterly earning cycle you should try

and go in the other direction and this

is a great way to generate value and

wealth uh and and so I think that when

you're thinking about a startup uh it's

really worthwhile to think about

something you're willing to make a very

long-term commitment to because that is

where the current void in the market is

um I I

think you know you get paid as a Founder

for the wealth you create for other

people so there's this view of the world

that um business is all about like

trying to steal money and sometimes

that's true but but the the best

companies just create massive amounts of

value for the world and they capture

some of that for themselves but they

capture far less than they create and

they do it over a very long period of

time so if you're going to be one of

those companies um I think you want to

make a super long-term commitment to

yourself and others that are going to

work on it with you that this is going

to take a long time um but it is worth

waiting because you will make far more

money over the long Horizon um by doing

this company really well than a bunch of

short-term things along the way rule

number nine is adapt as you go you don't

get to like play Life In Reverse

and you have to just like adapt there's

a mission we really cared about we

thought we thought AI was going to be

really important we thought we had an

algorithm that learned we knew it got

better with scale we didn't know how

predictably it got better with scale and

we wanted to push on this we thought

this was like going to be a very

important thing in human history and we

didn't get everything right but we were

right on the big stuff and our mission

hasn't changed and we've adapted the

structure as we go and we'll adapt it

more in the future um but you know like

you don't

like life is not a problem set um you

don't get to like solve everything

really nicely all at once it doesn't

work quite like it works in the

classroom as you're doing it and my

advice is just like trust yourself to

adapt as you go it'll be a little bit

messy but you can do it and Ru number 10

the last one before some very special

bonus Clips is question all advice it's

way too tempting to take advice from

other people and the stuff that worked

for me which I tried toite down there

probably doesn't work that well or may

not work as well for other people or

like other people may find out that they

want to just have a super different life

trajectory and I think I

mostly got what I wanted by ignoring

advice and I think like I tell people

not to listen to too much advice

listening to advice from other people

should be approached with great

caution how would you describe how

you've approached life outside of this

advice that you would advise to other

people so really just in the quiet of

your mind to think what gives me

happiness what is the right thing to do

here how can I have the most

impact I wish it were that you know

introspective all the time it's a lot of

just like you know what will bring me

joy what will bring me fulfillment

you know what will bring what will be uh

I I do think a lot about what I can do

that will be useful but like who do I

want to spend my time with what I want

to spend my time doing like a fish and

water is going along with a cur yeah

that's certainly what it feels like I

mean I think that's what most people

would say if they were really honest

about

it I think it's very easy to spend um a

decade being incredibly busy and

Incredibly stressed every day and

feeling like you're working incredibly

card MH and creating a ton of uh

movement but not moving forward MH and I

think this is like a big trap and it's

so easy to get caught up in um things

that are urgent but unimportant uh or it

is so easy to get caught up in like the

Trifles of office politics and playing

status and power games that don't matter

uh but feel so fun and so important or

or just like random other like

that piles up in life

um and I've at least found for myself I

have like a a like fixed budget of

cognitive output per day and I can spend

that on whatever but if I let it go on

unimportant stuff then I never have time

to get to the the really important stuff

and it's so easy to get heads down and

focused um and sort of Miss like what am

I actually accomplishing yeah the number

of people who have said to me like man I

thought for 10 years I was doing

incredible work because I felt like I

was creating a huge amount of output but

in retrospect it was in the wrong

direction

um is always depressing you do need to

focus and do stuff but you know I think

it's like really good to like Focus for

some period of time and then step back

and think like am I am I doing the right

thing you also don't want to make the

mistake that sort of like the

stereotypical Silicon Valley 22-year-old

or 21-year-old College Dropout says of

you know I'm going to solve all the

world's problems in 3 months and I

haven't done it in 3 months I failed so

I'm going to give up and do the next

thing and then they like jump on some

other project that's bad too so

balancing this is hard um but I think

like making checking in to make sure

you're working on things that matter and

working on an appropriate time scale

time Horizon is really

[Music]

important for 10 more amazing rules from

Elon Musk check the video right there

next to me I think you'll love it

continue to believe and I'll see you

there failure heard of it

there's your answer well there's a ton

of failures along the way that's for

sure for SpaceX first three launches

failed and we're just barely able to

scrape together enough parts and and

money to do the fourth launch that

fourth launch had failed we would have

been dead