Caroline Ellison (Alameda Research CEO) Deleted Her Goodreads Account • Hacker News Board

Re: Caroline Ellison (Alameda Research CEO) Deleted Her Goodreads Account

#11

Post by MollyRealized » Sun, Nov 13, 2022, 10:05 PM UTC

athinggoingon wrote: post #8

ink_13 wrote: post #2

I have no idea who this is. What's the significance of this?

She is one of the devils in nerd's clothing: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidjeans/2022/11/12/the-devil... She was an advocate of effective altruism who seems to be part of a conspiracy to have pilfered billions of dollars from investors: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/users/carolineellison But what's really interesting about her deleted Goodreads account is the last books she was in the midst of reading: The…

> effective altruism who seems to be part of a conspiracy to have pilfered billions of dollars from investor

If I'm understanding you correctly - which perhaps I'm not - I don't know as I agree. Are you saying that the concept of "effective altruism" is "part of a consp..."?

The concept of effective altruism, as far as I know, is simply to maximize the good-accomplished-per-dollar. In the past, after being pointed there by proponents of effective altruism, I've donated to organizations giving malaria nets, etc.

If you are saying this, I'd appreciate knowing more about what backs up your claim.

But if you're saying that there's some entity cloaking itself as 'effective altruism' but carrying out a Ponzi scheme, then that I'd have no opinion on.

Re: Caroline Ellison (Alameda Research CEO) Deleted Her Goodreads Account

#12

Post by xiphias2 » Sun, Nov 13, 2022, 10:35 PM UTC

athinggoingon wrote: post #9

ink_13 wrote: post #2

I have no idea who this is. What's the significance of this?

Her review of Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco https://web.archive.org/web/20221113051430/https://www.goodr... My very uninformed impression of how companies work is something like: - there is a CEO, who is a guy - there is a board, consisting of a bunch of guys who are friends with the CEO - they all have fiduciary duties and if they fail to meet them they will get yelled at by a judge in Delaware - ?…

But it does kind of feel like whenever you package and reallocate some risk, there is some tradeoff in which you might be increasing systemic risk but it's opaque and hard to measure.

This is crazy in the same review than the one that's talking about fiduciary duties.

Money is not just numbers on a paper.

She is destroying lives of millions of people.

Re: Caroline Ellison (Alameda Research CEO) Deleted Her Goodreads Account

#13

Post by etrautmann » Mon, Nov 14, 2022, 12:32 AM UTC

MollyRealized wrote: post #11

athinggoingon wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She is one of the devils in nerd's clothing: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidjeans/2022/11/12/the-devil... She was an advocate of effective altruism who seems to be part of a conspiracy to have pilfered billions of dollars from investors: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/users/carolineellison But what's really interesting about her deleted Goodreads account is the last books she was in the midst of reading: The…

> effective altruism who seems to be part of a conspiracy to have pilfered billions of dollars from investor If I'm understanding you correctly - which perhaps I'm not - I don't know as I agree. Are you saying that the concept of "effective altruism" is "part of a consp..."? The concept of effective altruism, as far as I know, is simply to maximize the good-accomplished-per-dollar. In the past, after being pointed th…

I think the argument is that a huge number of the EA types have been caught without their pants on in the FTX / SBF / Alameda fiasco. Those like Will McAskill have distanced themselves, but it still gives the collection of people a look that isn't great, even if it doesn't tarnish the conceptual basis of EA, as philosophized. Perhaps in practice, maximizing wealth leads ones to do morally sketchy things under the moral cover of maximizing good.

Re: Caroline Ellison (Alameda Research CEO) Deleted Her Goodreads Account

#14

Post by sshine » Mon, Nov 14, 2022, 1:27 AM UTC

etrautmann wrote: post #13

MollyRealized wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> effective altruism who seems to be part of a conspiracy to have pilfered billions of dollars from investor If I'm understanding you correctly - which perhaps I'm not - I don't know as I agree. Are you saying that the concept of "effective altruism" is "part of a consp..."? The concept of effective altruism, as far as I know, is simply to maximize the good-accomplished-per-dollar. In the past, after being pointed th…

I think the argument is that a huge number of the EA types have been caught without their pants on in the FTX / SBF / Alameda fiasco. Those like Will McAskill have distanced themselves, but it still gives the collection of people a look that isn't great, even if it doesn't tarnish the conceptual basis of EA, as philosophized. Perhaps in practice, maximizing wealth leads ones to do morally sketchy things under the mor…

> Perhaps in practice, maximizing wealth leads ones to do morally sketchy things under the moral cover of maximizing good.

And perhaps, in the process of maximizing wealth for good, the goblin whispers in your ear to keep some for yourself.

Re: Caroline Ellison (Alameda Research CEO) Deleted Her Goodreads Account

#15

Post by sshine » Mon, Nov 14, 2022, 1:31 AM UTC

athinggoingon wrote: post #8

ink_13 wrote: post #2

I have no idea who this is. What's the significance of this?

She is one of the devils in nerd's clothing: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidjeans/2022/11/12/the-devil... She was an advocate of effective altruism who seems to be part of a conspiracy to have pilfered billions of dollars from investors: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/users/carolineellison But what's really interesting about her deleted Goodreads account is the last books she was in the midst of reading: The…

> She was an advocate of effective altruism who seems to be part of a conspiracy

What if she gets much more happy about keeping the money than those it used to belong to?

Then surely this is most effective.

Effective altruism has lead to funny conclusions in the past such as:

Spend all the money on animal welfare (PeTA), or spend no money on the environment (Bjørn Lomborg).