There are a lot of smart people in the tech industry without undergrad degrees.
The problem is, in the current generation of tech workers, there's two kinds of people without degrees:
1) The grinder who has a knack for whatever part of the field that they work in and made their name through hard work and building a portfolio of work through practical experience
and
2) The (usually) guy who went to a college prep school, got into Stanford, and encountered a SV VC with exponentially more money than sense, who then told the 21-year-old that they were not a college student, but, in fact, Jesus Christ, and promised more money than the average person could comprehend to "pursue their dreams".
Altman falls into the latter category. Actually, a lot of the founder set does. I say (usually) guy because Elizabeth Holmes also falls into this category.
There are a lot of smart people in the tech industry without undergrad degrees.
The problem is, in the current generation of tech workers, there's two kinds of people without degrees:
1) The grinder who has a knack for whatever part of the field that they work in and made their name through hard work and building a portfolio of work through practical experience
and
2) The (usually) guy who went to a college prep school, got into Stanford, and encountered a SV VC with exponentially more money than sense, who then told the 21-year-old that they were not a college student, but, in fact, Jesus Christ, and promised more money than the average person could comprehend to "pursue their dreams".
Altman falls into the latter category. Actually, a lot of the founder set does. I say (usually) guy because Elizabeth Holmes also falls into this category.