Because he is willing to face the repercussions of doing so.

What repercussions? The situation strikes me as asymmetric: no matter what action Altman or Graham take they will be heavily criticized; for Ptacek, the worst would seem to be disagreement with his well-reasoned dialogue.

It seems unfair to force this to become a very public conversation.

Sam Altman has so much money that he divides his time between multiple McLarens. His "reserve fund" in case of emergencies is ten million dollars. Altman need never work again in his life. That's not me, especially after my two teenage kids go to college.

I'm a startup founder. Not only that, but I'm a startup founder that just last year considered attending YC during the summer session after Altman invited me (and, more likely, my then-cofounder Patrick McKenzie). I have friendships with people inside of YC, and with YC founders. Moreover, the company I'm building now works exclusively with startups, most of them at the YC stage of development, no doubt many of whom will actually be YC companies. How likely am I to get that invite again?

Furthermore, Peter Thiel is famously the most vindictive investor in Silicon Valley. He bragged about it, I believe, to the New York Times. I've had the pleasure of being blackballed by a group of different VC firms in the past.

If you think I have nothing to lose by antagonizing Sam Altman and, I guess, Peter Thiel (I think I have some safety from being too insignificant for Thiel to care about), I'd ask you to reevaluate.

> If you think I have nothing to lose by antagonizing Sam Altman

Altman's handling of this Thiel situation suggests that he'd handle it gracefully and would not hold it against you, out of respect for your personal beliefs and out of respect for your acting in a principled way, even if he disagreed with your conclusions, etc.

That's an excellent point. Altman is demonstrating intelligence and maturity.

Reading what you've written, it sounds like you are saying that Altman and people associated with YC are sufficiently petty that they would refuse to work with you in the future because of a political disagreement. Am I interpreting this correctly? That would seem to be at odds with Altman's actions and public persona so far.

You really think Altman or Graham would work with Trump in the future?

(I won't be surprised if it happens either.)

Logic suggests that you aren't, in fact, likely to risk any of those things just to express your opinion in an online argument. So you don't think this is a real danger or you wouldn't be saying it here.

Altman made it a very public conversation when he posted it on the YC blog. Others are just continuing to discuss in a similarly public venue.