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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   26620 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 13, 2026

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Sam Altman's bad week continues, as a car stopped and appears to have fired a gun at the Russian Hill home of OpenAI’s CEO.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home appears to have been the target of a second attack Sunday morning, a mere two days after a 20-year-old man allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at the property, The Standard has learned.

The San Francisco Police Department announced (opens in new tab) the arrest of two suspects, Amanda Tom, 25, and Muhamad Tarik Hussein, 23, who were booked for negligent discharge.

It appears that, if measured by deed, Mr. Altman may be in contention for the title of most hated business executive in the country.

Unless I am profoundly misinformed about the base rate of assassination attempts on tech CEOs, it appears AI anxiety has apparently reached a precipitation point among American youth, to the point where discontent is crystalizing into direct action. I've seen this in my personal life. My youngest brother is a bright kid - top of his class, eagle scout, 1400+ on his SATs as a junior, the whole shebang. He's completely given up on his original goal of going to college for something software-related, and he's not only adrift about what he's going to do with his future, but he's angry about it. I hope he has a support network sufficient to keep him on the right track, but I don't like what I see.

I'm not exactly old, but I'm sure as hell not young either. For those of you who are 25 or under, what does it feel like on the ground right now?

top of his class, eagle scout, 1400+ on his SATs as a junior, the whole shebang.

My first immediate thought is Americans live on easy mode. For East Asians, top of graduating class would mean minimum 1500.

He was a junior, that is, not graduating yet.

1400 isn't particularly good (or bad) by any measure, Asian or otherwise, but he said he did that as a junior.

1400 probably doesn’t mean much on this site, but it’s still top 5–6% nation-wide. That’s pretty good.

You know, "being in the top 5-6% of educational achievement isn't good, this is insufficient" is a pretty blackpilling line of thought in itself. Imagine how screwed you'd be to be in the bottom 94%. That's almost everyone, and I guess we're just sweeping them under the rug and calling them bad dummy dumbs who don't count.

(This is independent of whether it is, or should be, sufficient to practice law or any other specific field. Law seems like a pretty horrible profession even in 'good times.')

That's not what I'm saying, I'm saying that it isn't particularly impressive and just an OK result, specifically within the context of academic achievement.

It means plenty of areas are cut off for him and he won't be part of the elite due to his educational achievements, but still could be through other avenues.

Plenty of areas work like this and if anything, education is particularly forgiving. Being in the top 6-7% means you likely get a decent job, just not the top cadre of jobs and you don't get to choose freely.

It also means that you likely should avoid some professional areas due to how bimodal they are. Being the least talented person at a law firm, in investment banking or management consulting is fucking miserable and a setup for failure, with law being the biggest risk due to the low bar of entry.

Right, and what I'm saying is that being in the top 5% being regarded "not particularly impressive and just an OK result, specifically within the context of academic achievement" is blackpilling. I agree that's not impressive for the elite world, but no one's talking about the elite here. It is not a failure to not be part of the elite. The elite should not be the inherent frame through which we view the world, such that "he still could be [part of the elite] through other avenues" is the consolation prize, and not "he has many options for a non-elite but good life available." If being in the top 6-7% means you likely get a decent job, with some hedging there, that's pretty blackpilling as an idea. I guess it depends on what we mean by "decent"; and if "decent" is only somewhat achievable by this portion of the population, that's the starting point for social upheaval.

Again, it's not about whether specific professional areas are a good or bad fit -- and I agree law, investment banking or management consulting aren't -- it's about how we talk about people's achievement, and whether we have a world where people who aren't in the top 1-2% on any measure can expect to have a good life. Not an elite life, not a fantastic splendorous life, just a good life.

Good by what metric? I certainly wouldn't want to try to go into law with a score like that, like it sounds like his new plan was. You're not competing with most of the population, what their scores would have been doesn't matter at all.

In Sweden such a score means you can barely squeeze into one of the less popular engineering programs. It isn't bad but it certainly isn't good either.

A formula that I've seen says LSAT = (0.048 * SAT) + 100, which would suggest a 1400 SAT corresponds to roughly a 167 LSAT. Probably not enough AFAIK to get you into a top 20 program, but I think you could find a law school willing to take you.

Though I'd guess you're likely to end up on the unfortunate end of the bimodal distribution.

Counterpoint: my 1380 SAT score translated to a 177 LSAT and admission to multiple T-14 law schools. I still ended up on the unfortunate end of the bimodal distribution, but that's because I did too well on the LSAT, if anything. Punching above my weight on the standardized test meant I may have been just as smart as my classmates, but I was a much worse student with much less developed soft skills. It wasn't the not quite smart enough students who struggled. Outside of a couple courses like fed courts, nothing you're learning is that complex compared to other academic disciplines. It was the students like me who lacked good study habits, institutional knowledge, amd networking skills who had a rough time.

I would say that a mid-160s LSAT is perfectly acceptable for admission at any number of regionally well respected law schools from which one can get a decently high paying job at a mid-size law firm or local biglaw branch (assuming you can stay in the top half/third of the class, which is definitely doable with a 1400-SAT-level IQ). You're not going to be a professor, clerk for a Supreme Court Justice, or get a cushy $200k gig right out of law school, but most of the profession is still open to you. Unless you live in a major metropolis, more than half of your local DAs probably scored under 1400 on their SATs (and that's not even counting the DEI hires)

It was the students like me who lacked good study habits, institutional knowledge, amd networking skills who had a rough time.

Ah, the gifted kid paradox. Everything in the early years is easy, so you don't develop study skills and grit, and then when you face something actually tough it crushes you.

(Also, AMD networking skills are extremely important -- how are you going to succeed if you can't connect your Ryzen gaming beast to the internet for studying? :P)

Though I'd guess you're likely to end up on the unfortunate end of the bimodal distribution

Exactly.

Don't most people take the SATs in their junior year? College applications start going out in October so there isn't much time to take them in senior year.

Oh, I mixed up sophomore and junior.

There's typically an August and a September test date that can get your scores released in time for even early applications.

It's not uncommon to take an earlier SAT, though, late junior year, to make sure you can retake it if you blow it the first time.

I got a 1530 and wasn't even close to top of my class, to me it seems like you guys are all living on easy mode.

overlap, you're at the top of the American/West range while I was pointing out the bottom of the East Asian range.

But what has that gotten East Asians? It would seem they prefer to move to the United States, and Americans do not prefer to move to China. Perhaps over-studying is a form of defection against society, and it being predominant lowers creative output, leading to a worse economy than a counterfactual society.

It would seem they prefer to move to the United States, and Americans do not prefer to move to China.

Not sure if that's true these days. We need to search up let's say where the top 10k gaokao testers go over the years. I believe the increased scrutiny ("Are you a chinese spy?") and increasingly hostile culture against China lead to many Chinese deciding to go back to their country. I know in Vietnam that it was a minor controversy where all the winners of a nationally televised academic contest all became Australian nationals (the winning prize is a full ride scholarship to an Australian university)

The vast majority have not gone back to China, and the other direction you didn't address. Americans don't move to China. Why is that, if China is so great?

There is (or more like was) a big expat community in China, I'm sure if they could they would have loved to take roots there. China just doesn't allow much immigration if at all. The supply just isn't there even if there is demand.

How big is it compared to the expat community of Chinese in the United States?

According to 2020 Chinese census, China has 1,430,695 immigrants, dividing between 845,697 foreign nationals and 584,998 residents of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.[1] As of 2023, there are around 12,000 foreigners with permanent residency in China.[2]

As of 2023, there are approximately 5.5 million Chinese Americans in the United States, making them the largest Asian origin population in the country.

Despite the US being 1/3 of the population of China, there are 4 times more Chinese immigrants living in the United States than all immigrants living in China.

How do you explain that if China is so great?

I just reviewed my comments. I should have said "Not sure if Chinese prefer migrating to America is all true these days". Look, I don't disagree with you. I am an immigrant to the US myself and certainly think it's a better place for me and that the place would be better with me in it. And about the dynamics of immigration, China has never been welcoming and has a strong cultural and social identity on what it means to be Chinese, not to mention the process sucks even harder than the US in some ways. If one looks at immigration by percentage of population, China stands out in both how powerful/rich it is compared to its immigration population. But the sentiment is changing and that's what I meant by pointing out that "Not sure if that's true these days". We've all read the many posts about Deepseek and Chinese tech companies, they are certainly full of talents and people who isn't really leaving anymore. Would they if they could? maybe. Target, desire, opportunity, the triangle of crime is a great way to explain how people make choices anyway. Opportunities for foreigners in China since the CPC came to power has remained few relatively even if they have the target and desire, but opportunities and desire for Chinese nationals to stay have increased.

But what has that gotten East Asians? It would seem they prefer to move to the United States, and Americans do not prefer to move to China. Perhaps over-studying is a form of defection against society, and it being predominant lowers creative output, leading to a worse economy than a counterfactual society

I think it can still shake out in surprising ways. China led in just three of 64 technologies in 2003–20074 but is now the lead country in 57 of 64 technologies in 2019–2023, increasing its lead from our rankings last year (2018–2022), where it was leading in 52 technologies.. I certainly read a ton of chinese webnovels and to me the Chinese authors are very very creative. The weight of Chinese population requires both US + Europe combined to counterbalance. Xi is iron-fisted, but Chinese people as a whole are prosperous and growing.

I am most worried for China about the demographic collapse, the gender gap. I thought China actually handled the real estate bubble well. I am of the belief that American people are still angry that no one really got punished for the 2008 crisis (that they got chumped) and that anger animates all the elections since. I don't like China's lack of freedoms, China homogeneous view of society, etc. but I don't discount that for much of its population that the balance is fine.

You are missing the point: nobody likes China, not even the Chinese. They flee from China at a rate much higher than people flee to China. Therefore, your ethnic chauvinism is misplaced. You said:

My first immediate thought is Americans live on easy mode. For East Asians, top of graduating class would mean minimum 1500.

This is not a good thing. This is why people don't like China or Chinese immigration. Studying too much is selfish and doesn't benefit society. It's bad behavior. It should not be celebrated.

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I've heard a few stories about really smart people on the margins moving to China and being wildly rewarded. Mostly white male engineers who felt DEI-limited in the states. Inversely though I know basically nobody learning Chinese. It's extremely uncommon relative to the number of people predicting that China is about to take over the world.

I believe the increased scrutiny ("Are you a chinese spy?") and increasingly hostile culture against China lead to many Chinese deciding to go back to their country.

Not to mention the near-impossibility of dating as an East Asian male fob in the US, especially in the major tech hubs (Bay Area, Seattle)

They could always try dating ADoS women.

I (and they) would much rather go back to China

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