In case you need proof that I ought not to be responsible for large sums of money, it was the winter of 2021 that I decided I’d become a crypto investor. Indeed, that was just before the giant crypto crash: good memory. Thankfully my risk tolerance is that of a hospital administrator or air traffic controller, which is to say: low. And if I hadn’t lost my $50 in the crash, I’d have lost it because I misplaced the book where I’d painstakingly written down all the passwords to the many layers of security I’d installed – because, you know, someone was going to hack me for my $53-turned-$13-turned-who-knows.
All this to say it was with some sense of proximity to the crime – what with being a crypto investor myself – that I read Michael Lewis’ Going Infinite which describes the rise and fall of crypto-investor-turned-exchange-turned-convict Sam Bankman-Fried. Lewis does a fantastic job of grabbing hold of the reader and making clear just how bananas crypto investing was (is?). A casual two billion here, an easy three billion over there. And while the descriptions of outrageous wealth are, of course, fascinating, I found the turn toward trying to understand Bankman-Fried the most compelling part of the book. What were his intentions? What were his aims? How did he come to be in charge of such riches? (I think the short answer is math camp).
Oh and the intentions of the effective altruists. What a bunch! Taking the idea that the purpose of an individual life is to save the most human lives / reduce the most suffering (at least that was my read on their movement) they figure the best route is to make as much money as possible so that money can be invested in different domains (AI research, pandemic planning, etc) where it can do the most good. (I’m sure there’s an argument for why this EA approach is better than a redistribution of wealth that would see investments in these worthy aims made by government rather than the billionaire class, but I digress).
Anyway, thanks to C. and M. for suggesting this one. Non-fiction FTW. I think C. told me there’s also a good accompanying podcast about the trial and sentencing, so if you get fully hooked on SBF you can listen to that, too.
As for me I’m on to reading about forest fires because ’tis the season for angst.
Literary Vice 