Here's a better journo calling out Lewis' shameless SBF peepeeriding
https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2023/10/sam-bankman-fried-going-infinite-book-michael-lewis/675609
Archived in case of paywall:
https://archive.is/v38jt
!r-slurs and !bookworms I'll tag both because this book is bad enough to get ridiculed by both.
Choice Lewis Apologia
>Sam dindu nuffin!! He was just a wittle boy who was just misunderstood. All the evil Wall St bros just didn't let him win.
>They didn't have any polycule you guys. They just lived in close quarters.
>If FTX's assets were properly assessed, we would all find the missing amounts. I don't think any of them would ever lie.
>SBFs parents are just big mama and papa taking care of their wittle boy
>SBF is a super savant bro. You just don't get it. He fidgets with board games and plays Vidya during press conferences, wears cargo shorts and flip flops and wears a wrinkly suit when he meets big DC people. He's so humble!!
>When asked whether he'll go to Vegas, he says 60%. OMG! Did you see the nuance? He just sees the world in an absolute quantifiable way!! Woah!!
>"I don't feel anything. Emotions are a hindrance." Woah Sam is so intelligent. (I wonder how emotionless he would be if I broke his arm)
>Effective Altruism totally works bro. You just don't get it. Consider a doctor in Zambia working against malaria. He can only spend 10 months there because he has family to feed. Let's say there are 50 doctors like him. So in total they can spend 500 hours to fight malaria in Zambia. However if I become an billionaire by defrauding investors I can hire doctors who can spend 501 hour there. Therefore it is ethical for me to become a billionaire. Lewis says, no cap, it sounds good in theory.
Fricking BIPOC.
And many more.
Worst book of 2023 by far.
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From my reading the point where he lost the ripple was a massive tipping point. Before that he was a guy with a legitimate upperhand running an arbitrage firm, but afterward everyone that was at all reasonable left and it was only people that were totally sucked in by his bizarre anti-charisma.
Also John Ray is a hero and was totally correct on everything, including pinning Lewis as a pigeon.
https://x.com/liron/status/1710193485763289469
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The book tried to portray Ray in such an unsympathetic light. As if he wasn't brought in to stop gap a 10B mismanagement in a 4 year old firm which didn't have any oversight and Lewis is slightly pissed off that Ray doesn't have the same manchild volatility as Sam.
I couldn't believe what I was reading for a second. It looked less and less like investigative journ*lism every page towards the end and felt like Lewis was trying to end it on an uplifting note about how everything will work out. Then when he realised it wasn't possible and the long arm of DoJ is finally going to fist Sam he just ended it abruptly (which was the funniest part to me).
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