The Optimist

Sam Altman, OpenAI and the Race to Invent the Future

By: Keach Hagey

Narrated by: Will Damron

From an acclaimed Wall Street Journal reporter comes the first biography of the enigmatic leader of the AI revolution, charting his ascent within the tech world as well as his ambitions for this powerful new technology.

On November 30, 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT, a chatbot that captivated the world with its uncanny ability to hold humanlike conversations. Not even a year later, on November 17, 2023, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, was summarily fired on a video call by the company’s board. The firing made headlines around the globe: OpenAI is the leader in the race to build AGI―artificial general intelligence, or AI that can think like a human being―and Altman is the most prominent figure in the field. Yet it was mere days before Altman was back running the company he had co-founded, with most of the directors who voted to fire him themselves removed from the board.

The episode was a demonstration of how quickly the industry is moving, and of Altman’s power to bend reality to his will. In The Optimist, the Wall Street Journal reporter Keach Hagey presents the most detailed account yet of Altman’s rise, from his precocious childhood in St. Louis to his first, failed startup experience; his time as legendary entrepreneur Paul Graham’s protégé and successor as head of Y Combinator, the start-up accelerator where Altman became the premier power broker in Silicon Valley; the founding of OpenAI and his recruitment of a small yet superior team; and his struggle to keep his company at the cutting edge while fending off determined rivals, including Elon Musk, a former friend and now Altman’s bitter opponent.

Hagey conducted more than 250 interviews, with Altman’s family, friends, teachers, mentors, co-founders, colleagues, investors, and portfolio companies, in addition to spending hours with Altman himself. The person who emerges in her portrait is a brilliant dealmaker with a love of risk, who believes in technological progress with an almost religious conviction―yet who sometimes moves too fast for the people around him. With both the promise and peril of AI increasing by the day, Hagey delivers a nuanced, balanced, revelatory account of the individual who is leading us into what he himself has called “the intelligence age.”

Altman is a figure out of Isaac Asimov or Neal Stephenson. Or he is the author himself: if it feels as though we have all collectively stepped into a science fiction short story, it is Altman who is writing it.

©2025 Keach Hagey (P)2025 Spotify Audiobooks

First 1/2: S.A. is genius do-gooder! Second 1/2: S.A. is duplicitous manipulator?

It felt journalistic, in the right way.

The first half was kind of boring telling of the life of a Walter Mitty, and/or, a young Stephen Hawking. The Optimist!

Second half? like watching Steve Jobs (it's about the journey) reveal that actually he's Mark Zuckerberg (it's about the power). ...An magnetic manipulator. The Sociopath?

Time will tell

a Full Biography of Sam Altmann Lacking Focus

A biography of the life of Sam Altman with perhaps a longer focus on his journeys in venture capital over his time with OpenAI and ChatGPT. Sone of the focus turn to those adjacent to Altman perhaps too long but still well investigated. time also spent on the repercussions Altman and others feared with AI. Overall a thorough but perhaps not the most interesting read for those more interested in the Altman of OpenAI and not just Altman the man.

The reader did a great job of showing interest and emotion throughout just wish the material was better focused.

Ai guy demystified

AI is an everyday topic. many people want to buy the stock and want to use the power while we grapple with what exactly is AI.

What can AI do and where is it going. and behind it all of course Sam Altman is the AI face and genius driving it.

Getting to know Sam Altman through this book was really important because any stock or business development that I follow I want to know the heartbeat of the person behind it all.

This book helps understand and get to know Sam Altman. I really like Sam and I believe in him and he's unconventional in not taking stock and and truly having a genuine interest in humanity.

I've always said follow the opportunity and the money will come. Sam truly has followed the opportunity with a childlike passion and the money has also come. This is a Fantastic book that I recommend to anyone with AI curiosity which is just about everybody.

The author is a big fan of Sam

Interesting read that highlights the progress of AI through Sam Altman’s life. But it’s clearly written in favor of Sam, highlighting his qualities and diminishing his shortcomings.

Very informative

All quite good. Thank you for the great research and reporting. Looking forward to your next book

Excellent, lots of new information, and no slant

An excellent book, that shows off great research, without any anti tech or pro tech agenda. It’s quite refreshing.

Thorough, enlightening and very human for a technical subject

This is an excellent book. Very well written and very well narrated. Much needed for the industry. I really like Sam Altman now!

good history of openai and the sv milieu

it’s more than an alman bio and the firing event is but a chapter. if you want drama, it’s missing here, but if you want history and context, you will find it.

Good not great

Unfortunately the subject is Sam Altman, but Hagey’s treatment is pretty thorough
The book gestated as WSJ’s tick tock of the OpenAI coup (“blip” to OAI insiders)
I did enjoy the book but it is not as interesting as Cade Metz’s Genius Makers

A journey into Sam Altman and how OpenAI came to be.

This was a very detailed And rich journey through the development of AI and the surrounding ecosystem. you also get to know Y Combinator, Paul Graham, Elon Musk, Peter Teal and the colorful characters of the Silicon Valley.
When the names and events are familiar, the story is delightful. When it ventures into unknown to the reader territory, there is an overload if names, companies and events. It is more of a journalistic overview than literary work. so at times I found myself waiting for the parade of names to stop, while at other times I was fascinated by additional insight about characters I knew from elsewhere.