They wanted a new CEO and didn't expect Sam to take 95% of the company with him when he left.
Sam also played his hand extremely well; he's likely learned from watching hundreds of founder blowups over the years. He never really seemed angry publicly as he gained support from all the staff including Ilya & Mira. I had little doubt Emmett Shear would also welcome Sam's return since they were both in the first YC batch together.
If that were the case, would they not have presented the new CEO immediately for an “orderly transition”? As I understand it, Ms Murati tried to get Altman back, and when she pressured the board, they tried at least two other possible CEOs before settling on Mr Shear, who also threatened to leave if they could not give evidence of a legal reason for firing Altman. It smells like a personality conflict.
I think the most obvious redesign would be to switch to a stenography system instead of Querty/Dvorak/etc. By chording, we could type faster with less movements. Steno takes longer to learn, but it's easier to type over 200WPM.
On the other hand, I tried using Plover for a couple months and found it was much better for writing English than it was for programming in an IDE. I missed the function keys. Plover was also a pain to use...I've been meaning to program a Raspberry Pi to run Plover but act like a normal USB or Bluetooth keyboard. I bought the Pi and a small screen, but never got further with the project. The Pi is now the piano synthesizer for my 25 year old music keyboard.
I was surprised to see the article didn't touch on chording. I have never made the leap myself, but I can see there's a lot of potential there if you're willing to commit. The whole QMK / DIY keyboard scene seems to open up possibilities, like[1]
Getting Re below 1 seems like the right approach, but I really hope that we can do this through extensive testing and travel restrictions. This way anyone who gets any illness and can be tested immediately, tell their friends to get tested, and isolate themselves. Meanwhile the rest of society can function more or less normally, even if they have to watch sports on TV instead of live, and after a sick individuals recover they can be retested and rejoin society again. This seems so much better to me having everyone spend 18 months in moderate isolation until a vaccine is approved.
At least summer is coming and it's substantially safer to be with people outside.
I've been using the Gemini PDA for the past year; it's recently been replaced by the Cosmo Communicator. It has a normal glass screen that folds like a mini laptop to reveal a keyboard. Mostly I like the keyboard (I'm typing on it now) because I find it hard to get over 60 WPM on a smartphone. However it's also nice to have the screen protected.
For very short distance flights, electric aircraft are already viable. For example, Harbour Air Seaplanes operates a 20 minutes flight between Vancouver, BC and Victoria, BC. They use float planes because both cities are on the coast. Their first electric aircraft should take off in a couple months.
One nice thing about electricity is that it's much cheaper than biofuels. This is because motors are much more efficient than engines, and because large generating stations are more efficient than small aircraft engines. BC is 95% hydroelectric which makes electricity even cheaper.
There is a compromise. I have a tendency to work odd hours because it's much easier to get actual work done if there's less distractions. On the other hand, I do feel it's important to have at least 1-2 hours overlap with other people's schedule to ensure that there's buy-in for any major changes in the code base.
Sam also played his hand extremely well; he's likely learned from watching hundreds of founder blowups over the years. He never really seemed angry publicly as he gained support from all the staff including Ilya & Mira. I had little doubt Emmett Shear would also welcome Sam's return since they were both in the first YC batch together.