I really don’t understand how you could have read that whole interview and see SBF as incompetent rather than a malicious sociopath. I know this is a very un-EA-forum-like comment, but I think it’s necessary to say.
My main reason to think along these lines is that his previous rise to fame and fortune seems way easier to square with con artistry rather than mere incompetence.
While the interview was largely incoherent, and he definitely admitted to some pretty bad stuff (like misrepresenting his views for PR), it also fits very well into the incompetence hypothesis many in the community had suggested before. If he really is a malicious sociopath, at least he came across as relatively sincere, and this interview shouldn’t update strongly either way.
I mean, he said “the part I most regret was filing for bankruptcy” (ie, when he stopped hurting people and acknowledged his poor actions) , and that he has spent his entire career lying about his ethical beliefs, and in general showed absolutely no sign of remorse for the people he had hurt. This is borderline-indistinguishable from the logic that horrific dictators use to justify themselves, and he did it all while being a well-known figure in a movement built around doing good! I don’t know if sociopath is exactly the right word, but it is definitely the sign of someone who doesn’t care about other human beings.
I somewhat agree with this. I think that regardless of whether his individual decisions around customer funds arose from incompetence, this interview still reflects extremely bad on him.
We should be completely clear that the behavior he described is absolutely abhorrent either way.
I really don’t understand how you could have read that whole interview and see SBF as incompetent rather than a malicious sociopath. I know this is a very un-EA-forum-like comment, but I think it’s necessary to say.
My main reason to think along these lines is that his previous rise to fame and fortune seems way easier to square with con artistry rather than mere incompetence.
While the interview was largely incoherent, and he definitely admitted to some pretty bad stuff (like misrepresenting his views for PR), it also fits very well into the incompetence hypothesis many in the community had suggested before. If he really is a malicious sociopath, at least he came across as relatively sincere, and this interview shouldn’t update strongly either way.
I mean, he said “the part I most regret was filing for bankruptcy” (ie, when he stopped hurting people and acknowledged his poor actions) , and that he has spent his entire career lying about his ethical beliefs, and in general showed absolutely no sign of remorse for the people he had hurt. This is borderline-indistinguishable from the logic that horrific dictators use to justify themselves, and he did it all while being a well-known figure in a movement built around doing good! I don’t know if sociopath is exactly the right word, but it is definitely the sign of someone who doesn’t care about other human beings.
I somewhat agree with this. I think that regardless of whether his individual decisions around customer funds arose from incompetence, this interview still reflects extremely bad on him.
We should be completely clear that the behavior he described is absolutely abhorrent either way.