By
KATE MURPHY
The tech venture capitalist shuns
social media and cherishes silence.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/opinion/sunday/sam-altman.html?emc=edit_sb_20150715&nl=business&nlid=66671639
Sam Altman is a serial technology entrepreneur and president of
Y Combinator, a venture capital firm in Mountain View, Calif., that has funded and nurtured a number of technology start-ups, including
Airbnb and
Dropbox.
(...)
LISTENING As much as I can, I’m listening to silence. I picked my apartment because it had soundproof, double-paned windows. If I’m hiking, I’ve figured out which of my friends are talkers, who can’t be in silence, and which are happy to just walk and think. But I do listen to music — no particular genre, whatever I’m in the mood for. The last three things I listened to were
“Jubel” by Klingande, a
Rachmaninoff piano concerto and
Third Eye Blind’s self-titled album.
(...)
FOLLOWING I follow less and less online. It’s so short-term, so inconsequential and so distracting. My problem with the stuff that’s online is the news cycle and outrage cycle gets shorter and shorter. And although it seems more intense, it’s less effective. One thing that has worked in my life and career is to have a very long-term outlook. I don’t think following social media is good for that. And I’m rarely happier after reading
Twitter.
