However, I think the question is germane, because if you go for the money, it has practical consequences, like daily association with people who operate under very different ethical frameworks than our own. The risk is that you’ll get socialized into their worldview, as (seemingly) happened to folks at Alameda. I am wondering how Ben thinks (or thought) about that risk.
I don’t recall any discussion of things like “is it okay to steal money if that goes to good causes?” and if you were to visit the AR office during the brief time I was there you would find a huge range of dysfunctions, but not people endorsing theft. (Note that I was there before any of the things people are charged with were alleged to have occurred.)
I hear a broader version of this concern sometimes from people who believe that finance or tech more generally are bad for society, and regardless of whether that’s true my experience is that the rank and file people who work in those sectors are basically pretty average people who happen to like math or programming or whatever, and I wouldn’t expect more value drift from you working with them than you would from working with the average person.
(I think there’s a stronger concern like “the value drift you experience from working the average person is too strong; I want to be surrounded by people who give 90% of their income, are vegan, etc.” and if that’s your desire then I do suspect that earning to give is probably not right for you.)
Did you sense something was amiss at Alameda?
EDIT—Ben addresses this at length in a previous post.
However, I think the question is germane, because if you go for the money, it has practical consequences, like daily association with people who operate under very different ethical frameworks than our own. The risk is that you’ll get socialized into their worldview, as (seemingly) happened to folks at Alameda. I am wondering how Ben thinks (or thought) about that risk.
Have you already seen Ben’s notes here?
Thanks! I actually had but had forgotten that Ben was its author.
I edited my top-level comment to reflect this, and to better hone the question I was really getting at.
I don’t recall any discussion of things like “is it okay to steal money if that goes to good causes?” and if you were to visit the AR office during the brief time I was there you would find a huge range of dysfunctions, but not people endorsing theft. (Note that I was there before any of the things people are charged with were alleged to have occurred.)
I hear a broader version of this concern sometimes from people who believe that finance or tech more generally are bad for society, and regardless of whether that’s true my experience is that the rank and file people who work in those sectors are basically pretty average people who happen to like math or programming or whatever, and I wouldn’t expect more value drift from you working with them than you would from working with the average person.
(I think there’s a stronger concern like “the value drift you experience from working the average person is too strong; I want to be surrounded by people who give 90% of their income, are vegan, etc.” and if that’s your desire then I do suspect that earning to give is probably not right for you.)