3 ms·

Sam Bankman-Fried Has a Savior Complex—And Maybe You Should Too

68 points by fortran77 4y ago

cryoz 4y ago
Less than 2 months old, wow.
samwillis 4y ago
For context they removed the profile yesterday (hence the archive link) after FTX collapsed and he resigned. It appears he may have been a little too altruistic with the deposits of his customers.
adrenalinelol 4y ago
Never thought I'd see a nymph on a VC website.
6c737133 4y ago
nice work to whomever archived it in time... the significance of the internet archive is going to grow and grow as the bigots, sleezeballs, and grifters continue to multiply and yes, i was playing league of legends while typing this monunmental reply
thiscatis 4y ago
Big cheques, barely DD.
luma 4y ago
Sam was found to be playing League of Legends while on a call w/ investors at Sequoia for a $1B financing round. Their response was to declare him a genius, as clearly only a genius would be playing video games while in a $B business meeting. These are the monied investment class showing their true skillset, which is mostly limited to "being rich".
- blackoil 4y ago
  Hmm, Now this has me confused, should I seek consultation for possible Adhd or just declare myself a genius and be done.
  - polygamous_bat 4y ago
    Do you have a lot of money and/or familial connection to high places? Depends really on that answer.
    - autotune 4y ago
      Not OP, but when I went through a manic episode at the start of the pandemic and believed myself to be near invincible I certainly thought I did.
    - Melting_Harps 4y ago
      > Do you have a lot of money and/or familial connection to high places? Depends really on that answer. Which is what matters most in that equation (see Bezos, Musk, Zuckerburg et al), I mentioned to some people in our circles that I honestly thought this guy was going to end up in rendition black-site when he announced he was going to start getting into political donations/lobbying. The State doesn't take this kind of stuff lightly, and using his distorted perception of alturism made him a massive target, but when someone listed all his family connections and links to academia and government I realized that he was just another insider cosplaying at being a 'disruptor' like most of the valley does. Honestly, he should be rotting in a cell working manual labour next to the woman's prison Elizabeth Holmes will be and sharing a cell with Sunny if there is any justice, but I fear they will get a light sentence and some years on house arrest and will end with early releases and probation given how things turn out for their tier of the legal system. One of the guys on his board from complianace ran a scam on online poker a decade before [0] and this was all kosher. 0: https://www.poker.org/ftx-collapse-tether-operations-have-links-to-infamous-online-poker-cheating-scandals/ https://www.poker.org/ftx-collapse-tether-operations-have-li...
- spamizbad 4y ago
  It’s weird they didn’t read this for what it likely was: ASPD
  - c7b 4y ago
    ASPD? Not focussing on important work sounds more like ADHS, no?
- kwere 4y ago
  in a world of privatized losses they would be rich for 3 generations at best, Vanderbilt style.
woodruffw 4y ago
Notably, less than two months old. If I was a financial regulator, I would be looking into the full nature of Sequoia’s relationship with FTX and Bankman-Fried’s other ventures. It’s hard to fathom such a massive evaporation in estimated value escaping the attention of one of his few hard cash investors.
marban 4y ago
The press needs to stop using cringe acronyms for these people so the Internet Archive can do its job.
pvg 4y ago
Dupe of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33549059 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33549059 and the currently discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33571734 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33571734
reykjavik 4y ago
didn't age well.
just4nornies 4y ago
[dead]
jackblemming 4y ago
Can society please stop worshiping idiots who were at the right place at the right time? I’m doubtful.
- huveja 4y ago
  Precisely, that worship for those types of characters shows how pathetic our society is today, those people are the result of our collective aspirations, we are all guilty..
randv 4y ago
Always read all articles with writers motivation/agenda in mind. this is why I like research / tech articles that are thoroughly backed by data or math!
polygamous_bat 4y ago
To me, SBF embodied the worst stereotypes about the Effective Altruism movement. The not-so-subtle air of I'm-smarter-than-thou, the hubris to think whatever they have thought of haven't been thought and dismissed by others (probably for good reason), and a bull-headed focus on risk and return that can be exactly quantified, to the point of ignoring other, "softer" sides of the issue. Until I see stronger denouncements of SBF (and not just for getting caught, but for the scheming) from within the Effective Altruism community, I don't think I can take them quite seriously anymore. SBF isn't alone in this. In school, while interning for a competing hedge fund, I met a drove of Jane Street interns who thought exactly the same way, in terms of "EV" or expected value -- the mean outcome from a random event. For example, whenever we would go out for ice cream, they would try to flip a coin to see who pays, given the "expected cost" was same. This behavior is fine if you're a market maker betting 0.001% of your worth on a toss that you win 51% of the time, and I imagine this is why Jane Street tries to cultivate it. But unfortunately, in this hyperfocus on returns, they forgot that "risk"/"variance" exists, and sometimes flipping a coin will land you in such a deep hole that you can't continue to play the game long enough to dig yourself out of there.
- Melting_Harps 4y ago
  > within the Effective Altruism community, I don't think I can take them quite seriously anymore. Having been involved with environmental activism and Bitcoin stuff for over a decade you see these types show up every now and then, often just for photo-ops and a self-gratifying projection of themselves in whatever will satisfy thier own ego trip. Honestly, these types are one of the biggest impediments to progress in these movements, they're so disillusional and siphon off much needed capital into these projects that ultimately leave everyone who might have cared at one point entirely apathetic (like you) to the plights and causes because they got burned from one of them. I think true altruism is an incredibly rare virtue, and subsequently a much needed one in the World at that, but it's often from a source of genuine personal pain and suffering that allows you to recall and thus empathize with someone who is/has gone through similar difficulties you've been through. To that end, I find it impossible for SBF to truly have a sense of self-awareness to realize how toxic and blatantly counter-productive he is and will likely be remembered as in both EA and in The Crypto community. Karpales was persona non-grata for nearly decade for MTGOX, but at least he did a mea culpa and served time in prison and sadly had his personal life destroyed as a result of his scam. I fear SBF will not face much given his connections and involvement in US politics via donations as well as his family, and THAT shows the hypocrisy of these sorts of people.
ww520 4y ago
Canadian Teacher Pension put money in the same round. VC could be reckless with their money. How could pension funds be so reckless?
adolph 4y ago
This one should be preserved in amber and prominently displayed in the anals of hubric hagiography. The part about the effective altruists nerd sniping in “tennis whites” shouldn’t be missed.
pearjuice 4y ago
Michael Lewis, the author of “The Big Short", is the true winner of this whole debacle. He was/is allegedly following SBF around, working on a book covering his raise to fame and riches and his influence in US politics. Seems he's getting the extra chapters he needed to turn it into a best-seller and another movie adaption.
c7b 4y ago
I'll admit, it was too long for me now, but I got to this bit, which makes for a perfect tl;dr I guess: > SBF needed to find a path on which he’d be a coin toss away from going totally bust.
zedgondal 4y ago

68 points by fortran77 4y ago

Less than 2 months old, wow.

For context they removed the profile yesterday (hence the archive link) after FTX collapsed and he resigned. It appears he may have been a little too altruistic with the deposits of his customers.

adrenalinelol 4y ago

Never thought I'd see a nymph on a VC website.

6c737133 4y ago

nice work to whomever archived it in time... the significance of the internet archive is going to grow and grow as the bigots, sleezeballs, and grifters continue to multiply and yes, i was playing league of legends while typing this monunmental reply

thiscatis 4y ago

Big cheques, barely DD.

luma 4y ago

Sam was found to be playing League of Legends while on a call w/ investors at Sequoia for a $1B financing round. Their response was to declare him a genius, as clearly only a genius would be playing video games while in a $B business meeting. These are the monied investment class showing their true skillset, which is mostly limited to "being rich".

blackoil 4y ago
Hmm, Now this has me confused, should I seek consultation for possible Adhd or just declare myself a genius and be done.
- polygamous_bat 4y ago
  Do you have a lot of money and/or familial connection to high places? Depends really on that answer.
  - autotune 4y ago
    Not OP, but when I went through a manic episode at the start of the pandemic and believed myself to be near invincible I certainly thought I did.
  - Melting_Harps 4y ago
    > Do you have a lot of money and/or familial connection to high places? Depends really on that answer. Which is what matters most in that equation (see Bezos, Musk, Zuckerburg et al), I mentioned to some people in our circles that I honestly thought this guy was going to end up in rendition black-site when he announced he was going to start getting into political donations/lobbying. The State doesn't take this kind of stuff lightly, and using his distorted perception of alturism made him a massive target, but when someone listed all his family connections and links to academia and government I realized that he was just another insider cosplaying at being a 'disruptor' like most of the valley does. Honestly, he should be rotting in a cell working manual labour next to the woman's prison Elizabeth Holmes will be and sharing a cell with Sunny if there is any justice, but I fear they will get a light sentence and some years on house arrest and will end with early releases and probation given how things turn out for their tier of the legal system. One of the guys on his board from complianace ran a scam on online poker a decade before [0] and this was all kosher. 0: https://www.poker.org/ftx-collapse-tether-operations-have-links-to-infamous-online-poker-cheating-scandals/ https://www.poker.org/ftx-collapse-tether-operations-have-li...
spamizbad 4y ago
It’s weird they didn’t read this for what it likely was: ASPD
- c7b 4y ago
  ASPD? Not focussing on important work sounds more like ADHS, no?
kwere 4y ago
in a world of privatized losses they would be rich for 3 generations at best, Vanderbilt style.

woodruffw 4y ago

Notably, less than two months old. If I was a financial regulator, I would be looking into the full nature of Sequoia’s relationship with FTX and Bankman-Fried’s other ventures. It’s hard to fathom such a massive evaporation in estimated value escaping the attention of one of his few hard cash investors.

marban 4y ago

The press needs to stop using cringe acronyms for these people so the Internet Archive can do its job.

pvg 4y ago

Dupe of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33549059 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33549059 and the currently discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33571734 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33571734

reykjavik 4y ago

didn't age well.

just4nornies 4y ago

[dead]

jackblemming 4y ago

Can society please stop worshiping idiots who were at the right place at the right time? I’m doubtful.

huveja 4y ago
Precisely, that worship for those types of characters shows how pathetic our society is today, those people are the result of our collective aspirations, we are all guilty..

randv 4y ago

Always read all articles with writers motivation/agenda in mind. this is why I like research / tech articles that are thoroughly backed by data or math!

polygamous_bat 4y ago

To me, SBF embodied the worst stereotypes about the Effective Altruism movement. The not-so-subtle air of I'm-smarter-than-thou, the hubris to think whatever they have thought of haven't been thought and dismissed by others (probably for good reason), and a bull-headed focus on risk and return that can be exactly quantified, to the point of ignoring other, "softer" sides of the issue. Until I see stronger denouncements of SBF (and not just for getting caught, but for the scheming) from within the Effective Altruism community, I don't think I can take them quite seriously anymore. SBF isn't alone in this. In school, while interning for a competing hedge fund, I met a drove of Jane Street interns who thought exactly the same way, in terms of "EV" or expected value -- the mean outcome from a random event. For example, whenever we would go out for ice cream, they would try to flip a coin to see who pays, given the "expected cost" was same. This behavior is fine if you're a market maker betting 0.001% of your worth on a toss that you win 51% of the time, and I imagine this is why Jane Street tries to cultivate it. But unfortunately, in this hyperfocus on returns, they forgot that "risk"/"variance" exists, and sometimes flipping a coin will land you in such a deep hole that you can't continue to play the game long enough to dig yourself out of there.

Melting_Harps 4y ago
> within the Effective Altruism community, I don't think I can take them quite seriously anymore. Having been involved with environmental activism and Bitcoin stuff for over a decade you see these types show up every now and then, often just for photo-ops and a self-gratifying projection of themselves in whatever will satisfy thier own ego trip. Honestly, these types are one of the biggest impediments to progress in these movements, they're so disillusional and siphon off much needed capital into these projects that ultimately leave everyone who might have cared at one point entirely apathetic (like you) to the plights and causes because they got burned from one of them. I think true altruism is an incredibly rare virtue, and subsequently a much needed one in the World at that, but it's often from a source of genuine personal pain and suffering that allows you to recall and thus empathize with someone who is/has gone through similar difficulties you've been through. To that end, I find it impossible for SBF to truly have a sense of self-awareness to realize how toxic and blatantly counter-productive he is and will likely be remembered as in both EA and in The Crypto community. Karpales was persona non-grata for nearly decade for MTGOX, but at least he did a mea culpa and served time in prison and sadly had his personal life destroyed as a result of his scam. I fear SBF will not face much given his connections and involvement in US politics via donations as well as his family, and THAT shows the hypocrisy of these sorts of people.

ww520 4y ago

Canadian Teacher Pension put money in the same round. VC could be reckless with their money. How could pension funds be so reckless?

adolph 4y ago

This one should be preserved in amber and prominently displayed in the anals of hubric hagiography. The part about the effective altruists nerd sniping in “tennis whites” shouldn’t be missed.

pearjuice 4y ago

Michael Lewis, the author of “The Big Short", is the true winner of this whole debacle. He was/is allegedly following SBF around, working on a book covering his raise to fame and riches and his influence in US politics. Seems he's getting the extra chapters he needed to turn it into a best-seller and another movie adaption.

c7b 4y ago

I'll admit, it was too long for me now, but I got to this bit, which makes for a perfect tl;dr I guess: > SBF needed to find a path on which he’d be a coin toss away from going totally bust.

zedgondal 4y ago