Effective Altruism

 Effective altruism- a uniquely 21st term that sounds ideal and worth pursuing from its mission statement of helping people as much as possible by choosing jobs that maximize the positive impact. Unfortunately the philosophy was espoused by one of the most notorious people in the news nowadays, SBF Sam Bankman Fried himself (who was also a vegan, but not a good look for veganism now) in that he wanted to use his massive wealth to help people (and then let FTX collapse without being able to pay their investors back, and was convicted of fraud and now sits in maximum-security prison), and the philosophy featured prominently in the book "Going Infinite" about SBF. Seems like a lot of people on Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and the top rungs of society espouse this theory to try to help society, but based on some of the justifications in the book (people theorized that it might be better to make as much money as possible as a lawyer/Wall Street person than spend that time as a lawyer in a third-world country saving as many people as possible because the lawyer/ Wall Street trader could use the money he/she accumulated and hire ten doctors to save even more people, or so the argument goes) there seem to be some flaws in the philosophy, as well as the problem of people just falsely taking up that philosophy to justify making as money as possible, or in the case of SBF when he was building up his bitcoin exchange and asking rich people for money, easy to mask his need for money with a catchy term like "altruism." 

Perhaps not coincidentally, at the same time I'm reading "Going Infinite" about SBF I'm also reading "Elon Musk" by Walter Jacobson. Both are extremely good biographies (I've apparently moved on from famous people telling their own life story through their narrow world views to excellent writers who pick the correct anecdotes, conversations, and bits to create a better narrative arc) but also they're about guys who were just different, for lack of a better word. Both Elon and SBF lacked social skills, had trouble dealing with others, were reluctant bosses, could be extremely stubborn, had no problem embarrasing other people and making them feel stupid, didn't finish school, and another thing they had in common: had the skills/genetic makeup/ ability to take risks to go from relatively poor to multi-millionaires in just a couple years, by finding a niche in an industry. Just like generational baseball players or talented singers, Musk and SBF were born in the right time in history and had exactly the right set of skills at the right: ability to program/understand niches in markets and be smart in the ways that mattered: know how internet payment systems work before others knew it would catch on, and know seeing the business opportunity in cryptocurrency and trading before others catch on. Reading both biographies, I can't help but see myself in those stories: like what was I doing in 2013, 2014 when SBF worked at Jane Street Capital, a hedge fund, and making millions for the firm exploiting financial discrepancies? My mom used to tell me when I turned 18 and started college, go out in the world and take chances, take risks, because you're so young and afford to mess up. I guess I took some risks to go to law school and carve out my career, but not nearly as big of risks as Musk and SBF to play with millions of dollars and change the way entire industries operated. At some level I understand that I don't have those special talents those guys had to be able to study at MIT, hang with Silicon Valley people and understand how complex computer and financial systems worked, for example (that's a pretty big part of it), but still I'm still kicking myself that I'm stuck in a pretty ordinary life of middle class without any prospect of doing anything earth-shattering. I guess I'm also glad, I suppose, that with the genius that Musk/SBF had, I didn't also carry the personality flaws that caused them to have so many haters/ and in SBF's case, end up in prison. I guess leading an ordinary life can have some advantages.