Lewis has had a real knack for picking problematic protagonists in his later career:<p>* The Tuohy family for Blind Side<p>* Kahneman and Tversky --- not really problematic as people! but right in the middle of the reproduction crisis in their field<p>* Brad Katsuyama, yeesh, who is also the reason Lewis was set up to do a hagiography on SBF<p>* SBF, of course.<p>I agree with the "man, can Lewis write" sentiment! He can! You know who else can write, extroardinarily effectively? Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell is <i>less problematic</i> than Lewis (I can't even imagine Gladwell dismissing Michael Oher as suffering from CTE the way Lewis recently did), but it's an article of faith here that Gladwell isn't worth reading, and not so much with Lewis.<p>So I think your problem with a book like Going Infinite is: SBF is obviously an interesting subject for a book, and, because Lewis was pre-sold on/to him, he had extensive access, and Lewis can definitely write. So if you're the kind of nerd we all are, you're inevitably going to get a bunch of "good stuff" from the book, and you're not so much going to get bogged down in the deeply problematic circumstances of its authorship and intent because you've already got all that context in resident set in your brain, you know SBF is a crook, you don't have to worry that Lewis is trying to paper over that stuff.<p>But I think when you're considering the book purely on its merits, that context starts to matter just as much as how good the writing is. This book is getting trashed for I think very justifiable reasons.
Zvi Mowshowitz also worked at Jane Street Capital and I found his take on SBF's rise and fall pretty compelling and detailed.<p>Interesting how SBF seemed to almost be running around in a sort of dissociative state. He was sorta aware that there was a whole world out there with consequences but he just completely ignored it. Screw the consequences, just kept doing whatever dumb stuff he wanted to do.
This sort of shoddiness with facts is becoming a concerning pattern for Michael Lewis. He's a great writer, but he really doesn't seem to have a close relationship with the truth. Two other examples:<p>* Everything about the blind side that is now coming out in court.<p>* The founders of IEX who are now begging the market making firms to come to the exchange which was designed to get rid of them... and creating a much worse two-tiered system in order to do it.<p>The next time I try a Michael Lewis book, I am probably going to approach it as a puff piece for a local Bond villain to get a more accurate picture of what's happening.
Molly White also wrote a review of this book:<p><a href="https://newsletter.mollywhite.net/p/review-michael-lewiss-going-infinite" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://newsletter.mollywhite.net/p/review-michael-lewiss-go...</a><p>The book exists in a strange space where it was mostly written before SBF's downfall (FTX collapsing and SBF fraud charges).
Given that SBF had worked at Jane Street, it seems strange that he either didn't know about martingales or believed they didn't apply to him.
It is a compelling argument being made that unaligned AGI would act essentially as SBF did and does. Everything is an optimization problem. If you select the wrong criteria the system explodes but there is no guilt or shame to make corrections.
My only issue with the reviewer is the reviewer complaining about SBF's parents saying things like: "why didnt you start him in highschool earlier" or his quote:<p>"Seriously, what the actual f** was SBF doing in a high school? (Also, why would he want to read the Harry Potter books a second time, one of the deeper unsolved mysteries remaining?) He was doing philosophy better than philosophers, off the cuff. He was bored out of his mind."<p>However in the previous paragraph when commenting on how great Sam was at philosophy and having intellectuakl stimulating conversatyions with his parents he said:
"This must have been so amazing. I can’t wait for this to happen to me with my kids."<p>The author seems to be pretending they know exactly what a perfect upbringing for a gifted child like Sam would have needed.<p>When In fact I can imagine raising sam would have been extremely difficult even with the best parents.