The Operating System
13 Talent Play

Superstars Are Worth More Than They Look

Overweight and overpay for outlier individuals: their contribution is nonlinear, and in a power-law world one superstar can outproduce a large team.

Superstars are even more valuable than they seem.

In his 2024 essay What I Wish Someone Had Told Me, Altman argues that superstars are even more valuable than they seem: their output isn’t a little better than average, it’s categorically different. The practical consequence is to structure compensation and equity to attract and keep outliers even when the number looks indefensible on a spreadsheet.

OpenAI enacts it. The lab’s aggressive researcher compensation, and Altman’s public willingness to pay top rates to prevent rivals from poaching, are the principle in cash, talent treated as the scarcest input worth almost any price.

Doesn’t transfer down the capital ladder. Bidding for superstars is a capital game, and it’s won by whoever has the deepest pockets. That’s exactly why this play concentrates the best people at the already-rich labs and rarely rescues the challenger: the founder who most needs a superstar is usually the one who can least afford the bidding war.