In the absence of a push to be more ambitious, there’s a pretty good chance that SBF would have felt content working at Jane Street Capital and donating a chunk of money to charity, and would only have left it to pursue direct work.
I’d be curious to get takes on this from people who know SBF better. In my (limited) impression from working with him, he seemed both extremely ambitious and hard to influence; I’m doubtful that EA ambition culture had a big effect on him.
That said, I think agree with the general takeaway of tempering the pro-ambition framing . I think it’s important to cultivate “humility / thoughtfulness / integrity” as EA ideals, and in particular as virtues that ought to be highly prioritized when one has a lot of influence.
I’d be curious to get takes on this from people who know SBF better. In my (limited) impression from working with him, he seemed both extremely ambitious and hard to influence; I’m doubtful that EA ambition culture had a big effect on him.
That said, I think agree with the general takeaway of tempering the pro-ambition framing . I think it’s important to cultivate “humility / thoughtfulness / integrity” as EA ideals, and in particular as virtues that ought to be highly prioritized when one has a lot of influence.