The Optimist by Keach Hagey – Non-Fiction Book Review

Neutral, well-researched biography of Sam Altman and OpenAI’s history. A balanced introduction to the AI landscape and its most influential player, but less valuable for those who follow AI news closely.

Just finished: The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future

Author: Keach Hagey
Narrator: Will Damron
Category: Technology/Biography/Business
Publication Year: 2025
Runtime: 12 hours 21 minutes
My Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5 stars)

The Overview

Keach Hagey, a Wall Street Journal technology reporter, brings journalistic rigor to this dual biography of Sam Altman and OpenAI. The book traces Altman’s path from Stanford dropout to app startup founder to Y Combinator president to OpenAI’s controversial leader. Hagey structures the narrative chronologically, spending significant time on Altman’s ancestry and childhood before accelerating into the OpenAI era around the midpoint. Unlike some other new AI industry releases, this takes a neutral, fact-driven approach to present Altman’s career and OpenAI’s evolution without heavy editorial commentary, which makes it a valuable intro but not insightful for people with deep knowledge of the industry.

Target Reader: Tech professionals and business leaders looking for baseline knowledge of AI’s key players and history.

The Deep Dive

My Take

Everyone should know about the AI industry – choose this or a different source, but learn about it.

This is a good choice if you don’t have much background knowledge of the industry. It’s journalistic and balanced, and it provides a moderate level of detail. However, it focuses extensively on Altman’s early years, without demonstrating how they shape his later leadership. Consider reading the introduction, then jumping to Part 3 (2012-2019) around the 4:50 mark when the book switches from Altman’s early life to his role in OpenAI.

This covers three core topics:

Altman’s Character

Altman will continue shaping technology for decades, so I value this book’s journalistic perspective on his character, compared to darker perspectives in other books. From the evidence this author gathers, it seems clear that Altman has exceptional talents as a persuasive and influential leader others want to follow, but he also has a major weakness in that he likes to please people, making him conflict-averse and meaning he sometimes fails to set a clear direction for his team. 

Beyond that, his character is open to interpretation. Many young startup founders need “adults in the room” to manage teams and operations—think Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg—so the most benign interpretation is that OpenAI’s young leadership including both Altman and others needed that. This was evident during the “blip”—what the OpenAI team calls Altman’s short-lived firing by the board—when the board failed to provide clear explanations to employees and others, and multiple leaders changed their positions as events unfolded.

Others have more negative interpretations. There are questions about whether Altman’s motivations are truly aligned with OpenAI’s stated goals. Some interpret his persuasive skills as power-hungriness, and others think his people pleasing tendencies are intentionally manipulative, not merely (and humanly) conflict-averse. 

OpenAI’s Trajectory

The book traces OpenAI’s evolution from nonprofit research lab to Microsoft-backed commercial entity, highlighting the governance tensions inherent in that transformation. (Now, as of October 2025, OpenAI has restructured as a for-profit company, completing the evolution.)

Originally founded by Altman and Elon Musk with the mission to develop AI for humanity’s benefit, the organization’s unusual structure—a nonprofit overseeing a for-profit subsidiary—attempted to balance idealistic goals with commercial viability. When Musk wanted more control and tried to become CEO, the team refused, leading him to pull his investment and later poach talent for Tesla’s AI division. This led OpenAI to seek Microsoft’s partnership, which provided crucial compute resources and capital but also introduced new power dynamics that complicated the nonprofit’s ability to prioritize humanity’s interests over profit. 

Mindblowing: ChatGPT’s launch was considered so insignificant that Altman didn’t even alert the board beforehand, yet it became the catalyst for both explosive growth and the governance crisis that temporarily ousted him.

Factions in the AI community

Philosophical divisions are shaping AI development, especially as AI evolves from a largely academic space to a commercial one. The effective altruists focus on existential safety concerns, worried about superintelligence potentially harming humanity. The acceleration-focused technologists, often including Altman and Peter Thiel’s circle, prioritize building breakthrough technology now while remaining open to supporting whichever entity reaches AGI first. The profit-driven builders view AI primarily as technological innovation with commercial potential. These aren’t neat categories—individuals and companies blend perspectives—but understanding these worldviews helps decode why different players make the strategic choices they do, from partnership structures to research priorities to governance models. The “blip” essentially pitted safety-focused board members against acceleration-focused leadership, with Microsoft’s commercial interests adding pressure.

Ideas to Apply 

While this doesn’t focus on actionable insights, all professionals today need to be aware of how AI and its leaders are shaping the technology our businesses will soon be built on. 

Familiarizing yourself with the AI industry’s philosophical factions helps contextualize current debates and news items like corporate partnership announcements in AI. Understanding who prioritizes safety versus acceleration versus profit helps decode corporate messaging and strategic decisions across the sector.

For leaders or investors in early-stage companies, this is also a case study in evaluating executives and the results they can deliver. A challenging dynamic plays out in startups regularly: the skill set that launches companies (vision, salesmanship, network building) differs from what scales them (operational rigor, transparent communication, effective delegation).

Why This Book Matters Now

Sam Altman will continue shaping AI’s trajectory for years, making his leadership approach and motivations directly relevant to anyone in tech and far beyond. OpenAI’s governance crisis foreshadowed ongoing tensions between commercial AI development and safety concerns—tensions that will affect product roadmaps, talent decisions, and competitive dynamics across the sector. For tech professionals making career or strategic decisions in this space, baseline knowledge of these players and their histories is essential context.

Altman’s eclectic interests—nuclear energy investments, survivalist preparations, funding a startup that preserves brains at death for future robot resurrection—paint a portrait of someone genuinely focused on breakthrough technology and existential questions, even if his motivations remain opaque. The book’s title carries deliberate ambiguity: Altman as optimistic technology visionary or as problematically blind optimist who glosses over conflict and complexity.

The Audiobook Experience

Narrator Performance

Voice Quality: Professional and clear, though somewhat bland
Ease of Comprehension: Well-suited for multitasking; uses inflection and tone effectively to add emphasis without becoming dramatic
Overall Narrator Rating: 3/5 stars (Good)

Audio Production Quality

Chapter Organization: No chapter labels beyond the chapter number
Supplementary Materials: Self-contained audio, no visual aids needed
Length: Digestible in segments; first 40% can be skipped by readers primarily interested in OpenAI rather than Altman’s full biography (read the introduction, then jump to Part 3 (2012-2019) around the 4:50 mark). 

Audiobook vs. Print Recommendation

This works well in audio but doesn’t stand out; pick the format that’s best for you. The writing and pacing make it easy to follow in audio while multi-tasking (think cooking, exercising, or commuting). 

Is This For You?

Perfect For

  • Professionals who need baseline knowledge of AI’s key players and OpenAI’s history to understand the personalities and power dynamics shaping the field (hint: everyone needs this these days – you don’t need to pick this book, but do learn about this). 
  • Readers seeking a balanced introduction to Altman and the AI landscape before diving into more opinionated analyses.

Skip If

  • You follow AI news closely and are already familiar with OpenAI’s history and major controversies. 
  • You want critical analysis rather than neutral documentation. 
  • You’re looking for technical depth about AI capabilities rather than business and leadership dynamics.

Similar Reads

  1. Empire of AI – More critical perspective on OpenAI and Altman, as well as the AI industry in general. Well-researched and trustworthy, but long and focused on a play-by-play account of OpenAI’s development with secondary coverage of risks of AI including climate impact, AI job quality and digital colonialism, and bias. 
  2. Supremacy – More critical perspective on the AI industry in general; in my opinion a flawed book that glosses over important details to push a specific perspective. 
  3. The Thinking Machine – One of my favorite books of 2025; while less focused on the AI industry broadly, this offers both Nvidia’s history and a thoughtful analysis of Jensen Huang’s leadership strategies with basic coverage of the AI industry.

The Bottom Line

A journalistic, well-researched introduction to Sam Altman and OpenAI. Best for tech professionals seeking baseline knowledge of AI’s most influential players, though the early biography is excessive. For readers who follow AI news closely, this covers familiar ground. For those building strategic understanding of the landscape, it’s the most balanced starting point available, even if not exceptional.

Where to Listen

Quick note: This review includes affiliate links to help support Lark’s Edition. If you purchase through these links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend audiobooks and resources I’ve personally experienced and believe add value.

For Your Team or Book Club

  1. How do you interpret Sam Altman’s character based on the evidence Hagey shares? Do you see him as simply a flawed yet human leader or someone with suspect motivations intentionally manipulating others? 
  2. Since Altman and OpenAI will continue to shape AI’s future, what key insights will you take from this book? 
  3. The AI industry contains distinct philosophical factions (safety-focused effective altruists, acceleration-focused technologists, profit-driven builders). How do these different worldviews show up in product decisions and strategic direction at companies you’re familiar with?

You may also like

Previous Post

Loved One by Aisha Muharrar - Book Review