The problem with having a hero is, sooner or later, they will disappoint you. I was reminded of this upon reading an excerpt from Michael Lewis's new account of Sam Bankman-Fried titled Going Infinite and listening to the author's comments about the disgraced FTX founder on 60 Minutes. I have long regarded Lewis as the kings of business writers—Liar's Poker, Moneyball, and The Big Short are among my favorite books—but, in the case of Bankman-Fried, he whiffed badly.
Before getting into the specific shortcomings, it's helpful to know that Lewis has a formula of sorts: find an outsider type who possesses a blazing genius to not only see truths that others cannot, but to act on them. And so we get the story of Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane outsmarting the much richer New York Yankees or hedge fund manager Michael Burry shorting the bubble-inflated housing market. Bankman-Fried was set to get the same treatment from Lewis until the FTX empire collapsed in a massive fraud right as Going Infinite was going to the printers—forcing the author to hastily update the story.
