Earlier write-ups have made this point: if we observe life closely and think about the backdrop of well-known news and events, we can now and then find, within those events, investment opportunities that the public has completely overlooked yet are highly valuable.

A similar report recently surfaced online (see the reference note at the end).

Jack Clark, one of Anthropic’s co-founders, has no technical background at all — he studied English literature and Chinese at university and could hardly be said to understand much of AI theory or the frontier [1]. Yet through a string of research findings during his prior career as a journalist, he stumbled into the grand technology track of AI.

His educational background is that of a pure liberal-arts student; after graduation he entered news reporting, covering technology.

In 2016, he noticed that almost all AI papers were using Nvidia GPUs. He sensed that something “hidden” from others might be there, though unfortunately the article he wrote about it never got published.

That did not dampen his enthusiasm. He kept researching, and eventually decided to leave journalism and throw himself into an AI-related field.

He joined OpenAI, then less than a year old, and became the company’s head of policy. Later, in 2021, he left OpenAI and co-founded Anthropic with Dario Amodei and others.

And so a technical novice and outsider found his way, by circumstance, into two of the most frontline AI companies in succession.

Many readers finish this report full of admiration for Jack Clark’s courage — after all, to act with such drive at a time when AI showed no signs of taking off, to cleanly cut ties and join a field and company (OpenAI) he “assumed” was “grand” but whose realisation was still utterly uncertain, takes a boldness most people do not have.

That kind of mettle is indeed rare.

It brings to mind the story of CZ, the founder of Binance, who sold his house to buy Bitcoin — another staggering act of courage and choice.

But for the vast majority, there is no need to burn one’s bridges as thoroughly as Jack Clark and CZ did, because such a cost is hard for most ordinary people to bear.

What can be done instead is simply to allocate, from resources within one’s means, a share one can afford to lose, and participate — and still capture a very decent dividend.

When reading that report, the first thought was not to resign from journalism for an AI job, but to look immediately at Nvidia’s 2016 share price: it oscillated between roughly $0.7 and $2.7 per share [2].

Had Nvidia’s stock never split after 2016, its price translated to today would be about $8,700 per share.

In other words, if back then one genuinely believed the AI industry would explode but dared not risk quitting for such an uncertain field, one could simply have bought Nvidia shares — just one lot of 100 shares, costing only $70 to $270.

Then ignore it.

Today those 100 shares would be worth $870,000.

That cost is entirely within the reach of most ordinary people, and it carries no great risk; one could still live and work as calmly as ever.

The same logic applies to “selling the house to buy Bitcoin”: when others also noticed Bitcoin was an opportunity, there was no need to bet one’s entire net worth — squeezing a little from daily pocket money to take a position was enough to seize the chance.

So the more important point, it seems, is not quitting for AI or selling the house for XXX, but the ability to spot trends and opportunities from information everyone can see yet almost no one notices.

As long as those trends and opportunities can be identified, a very small cost can be staked on a future payoff that may be very large.

References

  • [1] The report profiles Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark: a liberal-arts graduate (English literature and Chinese) and former technology journalist who, after noticing in 2016 that nearly all AI papers relied on Nvidia GPUs, left journalism to join the then-infant OpenAI as head of policy, and in 2021 co-founded Anthropic with Dario Amodei.
  • [2] Nvidia traded between roughly $0.7 and $2.7 per share in 2016; on a pre-split basis its equivalent price today would be about $8,700, making a 100-share position then worth roughly $870,000 now. The anecdote of CZ (Binance) selling his house to buy Bitcoin is cited as a parallel case of early conviction.