5 Lessons for CEO Comms from a Viral Sam Altman Tweet
Last week, a viral tweet from the popular X account Yacine questioned Sam Altman's motivations. Sam's response provides a handful of valuable comms lessons for CEOs.
In short, Sam said, "if i were like, a sports star or an artist or something, and just really cared about doing a great job at my thing, and was up at 5 am practicing free throws or whatever, that would seem pretty normal right?"
Here are five things CEOs can learn from that response:
1. Engage with good-faith critics who have audiences. If the critic has no audience or is clearly out to destroy you with an idiosyncratic attack you haven’t heard elsewhere, don't respond. But if they're a neutral player or ally with a big following, consider replying. They're giving you an opportunity to shift the conversation.
2. Use authentic language. Sam writes in lowercase — a little performative tech bro for my taste, but it's his thing, and he sticks to it. More importantly, you can hear his actual voice in the cadence of his reply: “if i were like...” It feels personal, not corporate. And in comms, likability is a big edge. People do business with people they like.
3. Acknowledge mistakes without lingering on them. Sam noted that he should've taken equity "a long time ago" to clarify his motivations. But he didn't self-flagellate. Good balance: acknowledge mistakes and move on.
4. Make one clear point. The through-line is Sam’s post is "I love what I do, and I want to have an impact." Cynics will always be cynical, but he made himself legible to people like me who didn’t previously have a strong opinion. As Yacine put it in his reply, people understand that kind of motivation: the “I’m just a gamer” type of founder. Making this point was worthwhile, and it’s likely what readers will come away with.
5. Share the good and the bad. Sam lets readers in on his evolution: from “the first part of openai was unbelievably fun” to “it is extremely painful” now — while still acknowledging the privilege. If he’d said, “I just love this, and it’s the greatest opportunity anyone could be given,” it would’ve sounded fake. Nodding to the complexity of the experience makes him more relatable.
The answer to criticism is often don’t respond. But sometimes, it’s worth it, especially if the critic:
Has an audience
Isn’t acting in bad faith
Is voicing a concern others share
When you do respond, keep it simple: speak like yourself, acknowledge the issue without dwelling on it, make one clear point, and let people see the human behind the company.
