Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world's youngest billionaire and crypto's Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side?
In Going Infinite Lewis sets out to answer this question, taking readers into the mind of Bankman-Fried, whose rise and fall offers an education in high-frequency trading, cryptocurrencies, philanthropy, bankruptcy, and the justice system. Both psychological portrait and financial roller-coaster ride, Going Infinite is Michael Lewis at the top of his game, tracing the mind-bending trajectory of a character who never liked the rules and was allowed to live by his own--until it all came undone.
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Community Reviews
What’s it about?
Sam Bankman-Fried was working in cryptocurrency, and at the top of his game, when Michael Lewis met him. At the height of his success Bankman-Fried’s estimated net worth was anywhere from $15 billion to $26 billion dollars- and he was not yet 30-years-old. Michael Lewis had unprecedented access to Bankman-Fried as his world came tumbling down around him. This is his story.
What did it make me think about?
Who is this person? I just came away from this book with NO sense of who Sam Bankman-Fried really was.
Should I read it?
I always enjoy a story from Michael Lewis. He has such a knack for taking real people and situations and making them clear. Often the people in his books are smart and likable. This book was different in that Sam Bankman-Fried was not clear to me at all. Was he a criminal who stole from those around him? Or was he a super smart savant with no social skills (and no one that held him accountable) who got in over his head? I read the book and I am not sure…. In fact, if I am bing honest, I still can’t wrap my head around the concept of cryptocurrency. I found this book very easy to read and interesting- but it lacked a point of view and left me with little clarity about what really happened. Maybe Michael Lewis feels the same…
Quote-
“He knew he should feel grateful to Jane Street for finding value in him that no one else had, but he also knew that he didn’t. ‘To be truly thankful, you have to have felt it in your heart, in your stomach, in your head,- the rush of pleasure, of kinship, of gratitude,’ he wrote. ‘And I don’t feel those things. But I don’t feel anything, or at least anything good. I don’t feel pleasure, or love, or pride, or devotion. I feel the awkwardness of the moment enclosing on me. The pressure to react appropriately, to show that I love them back. And I don’t, because I can’t.’ ”
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