Top Silicon Valley VC firm a16z recently dug up a 2018 YC interview with OpenAI boss Sam Altman. In it, Sam mentioned that the most rewarding period of his career was when he wasn’t working and had a lot of free time. During that time, he suddenly had tons of space to dive into textbooks, teaching himself nuclear engineering and even AI. He then traveled the world, stayed in cheap hostels, met all kinds of interesting people, and helped out whenever someone needed it. In return, they’d teach him something or later offer him investment opportunities for his startups. Although most of those ventures didn’t pan out, the seeds planted during that time eventually grew in profound ways. When you think about it, it’s probably because of that period that he got into the AI space. A few years later, he co-founded OpenAI with Elon Musk, which led to the creation of the now-famous AI model ChatGPT. It’s changed the world and impacted so many of us.