Beyond the Advisor Halo: Students Are the Real Protagonists
docmilanfar · x · 2026-07-18
This repost responds to Russ Salakhutdinov proudly showcasing his students' career trajectories. The original post lists alumni who went on to become founders or key company members, including:
- Zhilin Yang: Founder and CEO of Moonshot AI
- Jimmy Ba: Co-founder of xAI
- Devendra Chaplot: Founding member at Thinking Machines / Mistral
- Along with several alumni at Apple and other startups
The reposter argues that these achievements shouldn't be credited solely to the advisor. Top programs attract exceptionally talented students, and the advisor's role is often just providing a platform and bandwidth for them. When evaluating "who contributed more," one should carefully distinguish between advisor influence and the students' inherent capabilities.
Related event: Moonshot Founder's Academic Lineage Sparks Discussion(3 posts)→
More from Companies & People
- Forter's 13 lessons from its agent sprint: skip custom RAG, lean on mature enterprise search — bibryam · 2026-09-11
- Law Professor on Legal Engineering Jobs: Stigma Is Real but Builder Skills Open New Doors — jkubicki · 2026-09-11
- AI safety community mocked as 'bridge engineers' who say bridges can never be safe — Dan_Jeffries1 · 2026-09-11
- SoftBank's Masayoshi Son predicts 100 trillion self-replicating AIs: "humans' era as top life form is ending" — Puzzleheaded-King584 · 2026-09-11
- Inside Ant Group's play at WAIC-style expo: AI and hardware vendors settle into new division of labor — 智东西 · 2026-09-11
- Instagram head says engagement falls by half without the algorithm — hsuduebc2 · 2026-09-11