I agree we should be wary of philosopher-kings. But that’s mostly just because we should be wary of “kings” (or immature dictators) in general.
Two options:
(1) An immature 30 year old king.
(2) An immature 30 year old king who has chosen to spend the last 10 years in a bubble of consequentialist-flavoured philosophy. [1]
Knowing nothing else, I’d pick (1). You?
Option (2) seems much higher variance. Most likely, this guy is a midwit, or perhaps a high IQ idiot. In either case, electing him king probably means serious trouble ahead.
[1] I’m drawing a caricature here, to make the point clearer. I’m not sure how accurate (1) would be as a description of SBF, but it seems roughly right.
Richard: you wrote…
Two options:
Knowing nothing else, I’d pick (1). You?
Option (2) seems much higher variance. Most likely, this guy is a midwit, or perhaps a high IQ idiot. In either case, electing him king probably means serious trouble ahead.
Given more information I can imagine picking (2). I’d be looking for evidence of practical wisdom, whether that’s taking context seriously, Karnofsky-style “cluster thinking”, Burkean worldliness, or the pragmatism of Fat Tony.
See also: Byrne Hobart and Dwarkesh Patel on hardcore believers & monasteries.
[1] I’m drawing a caricature here, to make the point clearer. I’m not sure how accurate (1) would be as a description of SBF, but it seems roughly right.