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Sam Bankman-Fried tries to explain himself

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Re: Sam Bankman-Fried tries to explain himself

#91
Not seeing much remorse here, but what can you expect from a guy that gambled with billions of dollars worth of people's savings. Don't buy that he didn't realize what they were doing until it was too late. He admits in this interview to lying about previous public positions, so wouldn't trust anything he says here either.

I just hope crypto learns from this and normalizes Proof of Reserves

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried tries to explain himself

#92
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You kind of went off the rails there in the final sentence. Are you saying that any of this adds credence to the silly idea that Democrats are beholden to SBF campaign money?

It’s a silly idea that being the second largest donor to a political party in the US buys you special favors? Why else would anyone give that kind of money to politicians without expecting something in return?

>Why else would anyone give that kind of money to politicians without expecting something in return?

There's a polite theory it is done for altruistic reasons to make the country a better place for all and that it is the exercise of free speech and you are also free to give Trump, Biden, Pelosi & McConnell vast amounts of cash.

But yes we're all adults here.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried tries to explain himself

#93
post #77

> I was trying to make sense of what, behind the PR and the charitable donations and the lobbying, Bankman-Fried actually believes about what’s right and what’s wrong — and especially the ethics of what he did and the industry he worked in. This seems like a weird thing to worry about right now, I imagine my question would be "hey, where'd all the deposits go?" Like, I'm sure it's all interesting in a psychological a…

It makes a lot of sense given the nature of SBF’s charitable donations and the purported rationale(s) behind them. Kelsey Piper is pretty deeply associated with the EA movement, which is heavily interested in picking the right ways to deploy money to solve the world’s problems, and much of SBF’s charitable giving was too.

> In 2018, Vox launched Future Perfect, with the goal of covering the most critical issues of the day through the lens of effective altruism. In this talk, Kelsey Piper discusses how the project worked out, her experience as a Vox staff writer, and her thoughts on the key challenges of EA-focused journalism.

I just commented in this thread about how this story magically keeps getting worse, and then it got worse...

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried tries to explain himself

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holmes is getting sentenced this week. It took years to get there. This isn't going to happen overnight.

> This isn't going to happen overnight What isn't going to happen overnight, justice? A fairer world? I don't think a fairer world is on its way, I wish it was but the powerful won't be held accountable because people simply don't have the power to hold them accountable. We simply don't live in a just world.

Yeah, life isn't fair. I have a wfh job software engineering in my PJs while some people need to spend their lives doing hard labor in the sun.

Holmes is probably going to prison. Idk what's going to happen with SBF, but to prosecute you need evidence and there's a process.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried tries to explain himself

#95
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You kind of went off the rails there in the final sentence. Are you saying that any of this adds credence to the silly idea that Democrats are beholden to SBF campaign money?

It’s a silly idea that being the second largest donor to a political party in the US buys you special favors? Why else would anyone give that kind of money to politicians without expecting something in return?

I'd expect that the something in return buys you a king's seat at the regulatory table, not quite a get-out-of-jail-scott-free-for-stealing-billions card.

I'm sure that in a few years, once the courts get everything sorted out, we'll learn which of our prejudices is closer to reality. As of today, though, we're both just speculating.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried tries to explain himself

#97

Jesus Christ…does this guy not know that you should keep quiet when you’re the subject of a criminal investigation from multiple government agencies?

This is further evidence that he was thinking of this in terms of all-or-nothing coin flips. In case you haven't seen it: COWEN: Okay, but let’s say there’s a game: 51 percent, you double the Earth out somewhere else; 49 percent, it all disappears. Would you play that game? And would you keep on playing that, double or nothing? BANKMAN-FRIED: With one caveat. Let me give the caveat first, just to be a party pooper, w…

The whole point of the paradox is that if you keep playing it’s impossible to end with anything but nothing. Sam laid out no exit point, not sure how he comes to the conclusion that he can end with an enormously valuable existence.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried tries to explain himself

#98
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah after the NYT interview I'm a bit shocked at how bad these messages look. He looks stupid, brazen, delusional, and lacking in compassion. If his texts are normally similar to this, how did anyone serious think this guy was brilliant?

> how did anyone serious think this guy was brilliant? He made a lot of money by bucking norms. Hacker news of all places should recognize that people are drawn to those who project an appearance of improbable success through skill despite a lack of underlying competence (see also: Elon Musk)

[deleted]

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried tries to explain himself

#99
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a silly idea that being the second largest donor to a political party in the US buys you special favors? Why else would anyone give that kind of money to politicians without expecting something in return?

I'd expect that the something in return buys you a king's seat at the regulatory table, not quite a get-out-of-jail-scott-free-for-stealing-billions card. I'm sure that in a few years, once the courts get everything sorted out, we'll learn which of our prejudices is closer to reality. As of today, though, we're both just speculating.

Fair enough. You are correct it is all speculation. We’ll see.

Re: Sam Bankman-Fried tries to explain himself

#100

Somewhat unrelated to this article, but could someone clear up a point of confusion for me? There are people blaming the CTFC and Congress and the Democrats that SBF donated to for not regulating this. But was FTX (the Bahamian entity) even under their purview? AFAIK, you weren't even allowed to access FTX from a USA IP address, you had to use a VPN. You could access FTX US which was a different thing and offered a m…

FTX US failed too though.
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