there are definitely status ladders within openai, and people definitely care about it. status has this funny tendency where once you’ve “made it” you realize that you have merely attained table stakes for another status game waiting to be played.
this matters because if being at openai counts as having “made it”, then you’d predict that people will stop value drifting once they are already inside and feel secure that they won’t be fired, or could easily find a new job if they did. but, in fact, i observe lots of value drift in people after they join the labs just because they are seeking status within the lab.
there are definitely status ladders within openai, and people definitely care about it. status has this funny tendency where once you’ve “made it” you realize that you have merely attained table stakes for another status game waiting to be played.
this matters because if being at openai counts as having “made it”, then you’d predict that people will stop value drifting once they are already inside and feel secure that they won’t be fired, or could easily find a new job if they did. but, in fact, i observe lots of value drift in people after they join the labs just because they are seeking status within the lab.