It is good that you and the rest of prominent EA leaders are adopting this stance now, at least preferable to doubling down or even focusing exclusively on our ignorance with a “wait and see” attitude.
But Rob, respectfully, we also have questions.
Given the scope of its audience and the apparently extensive preparation and effort you advertise that it takes, your 80k interview with SBF both presented him in a very favorable light and, at least in retrospect, was a huge missed opportunity for us as a community to ask questions that could have raised red flags.
For that interview, were there any topics that were considered off-limits? Given the hesitance you express, at least in this post, about crypto in general, did you consider asking any difficult questions about FTX’s business? At the time, were you aware of the continued Alameda-FTX connection and “open secret” that they were self-trading?
What thinking influenced the overwhelmingly positive “let’s all learn from SBF’s example” framing that you brought to the interview? What about SBF’s business career in crypto, seemed admirable to you beyond his philanthropy and (now known to be illusory) success? Did anyone on staff who is even more skeptical than you of crypto/FTX have a look over the questions ahead of time with a critical eye?
I don’t generally believe that you failed to disclose any conflicts of interest—it was pretty clear to me at least that SBF was funding a large number of EA causes, and that’s why you were inviting him on. But I think there’s a lot of information we now clearly wish we could have gotten from that interview, but didn’t.
I would also like to add the things expressed in this comment:
“Sam sleeps on a bean bag” and “Sam drives a Corolla” when I was quite confident that they knew that Sam was living in one of the most expensive and lavish properties in the Bahamas and was definitely not living a very frugal livestyle.
If this is true it would not be hard to fact check since many EAs knew SBF, and I got the impression from the interview that Rob knew SBF too. I don’t know anything about the situation so I don’t know what is true. All I know is that the episode gave me a very good impression of SBF and probably helped him build a good image among EAs.
My (very weak) understanding is that both were true—he lived in a very expensive place in the Bahamas, where he had at least several housemates, and he usually slept on a couch, bean bag etc rather than a bed.
I guess similar to Warren Buffett—people always tout that he drives a crappy old car, which appears to be true, but, like, he also has a private jet!
It is good that you and the rest of prominent EA leaders are adopting this stance now, at least preferable to doubling down or even focusing exclusively on our ignorance with a “wait and see” attitude.
But Rob, respectfully, we also have questions.
Given the scope of its audience and the apparently extensive preparation and effort you advertise that it takes, your 80k interview with SBF both presented him in a very favorable light and, at least in retrospect, was a huge missed opportunity for us as a community to ask questions that could have raised red flags.
For that interview, were there any topics that were considered off-limits? Given the hesitance you express, at least in this post, about crypto in general, did you consider asking any difficult questions about FTX’s business? At the time, were you aware of the continued Alameda-FTX connection and “open secret” that they were self-trading?
What thinking influenced the overwhelmingly positive “let’s all learn from SBF’s example” framing that you brought to the interview? What about SBF’s business career in crypto, seemed admirable to you beyond his philanthropy and (now known to be illusory) success? Did anyone on staff who is even more skeptical than you of crypto/FTX have a look over the questions ahead of time with a critical eye?
I don’t generally believe that you failed to disclose any conflicts of interest—it was pretty clear to me at least that SBF was funding a large number of EA causes, and that’s why you were inviting him on. But I think there’s a lot of information we now clearly wish we could have gotten from that interview, but didn’t.
I would also like to add the things expressed in this comment:
If this is true it would not be hard to fact check since many EAs knew SBF, and I got the impression from the interview that Rob knew SBF too. I don’t know anything about the situation so I don’t know what is true. All I know is that the episode gave me a very good impression of SBF and probably helped him build a good image among EAs.
My (very weak) understanding is that both were true—he lived in a very expensive place in the Bahamas, where he had at least several housemates, and he usually slept on a couch, bean bag etc rather than a bed.
I guess similar to Warren Buffett—people always tout that he drives a crappy old car, which appears to be true, but, like, he also has a private jet!
Thanks for clarifying. That makes it more nuanced. Then it seems like the statements were true but perhaps misleading.
Yeah agreed re true but somewhat misleading