The overall ‘vibe’ of the company was more of a messianic cult than a normal software company. But importantly, it seemed that criticism was highly tolerated and welcomed – one person showed me an email chain where an entry-level software engineer was having an open, contentious argument with a Director of the company with the entire company... See more

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Both OpenAI and Palantir required backing by rich people with deep belief and willingness to fund them for years without any apparent or obvious breakthroughs (Elon/YC Research, and Peter Thiel, respectively). Palantir floundered for years, barely getting any real traction in the gov space, and doing the opposite of the ‘lean startup’ thing;... See more