Benjamin Durham

I'm a huge Michael Lewis fan. Two chapters in...this book is kind of embarrassing. Now reading other reviews...apparently, it goes downhill from here? I'm not sure how. The level of credulity Lewis shows for his subject's narrative is astonishing. "SBF wasn't rude intentionally, his brain just constantly calculated the expected value of all interactions in his life." Did Michael Lewis actually believe that when he wrote it? Lewis details how SBF would play video games during interviews, responding with an absent 'yep' as if he is a misunderstood genius who is too intelligent for normal human interaction. But he's not. He's just a loser who got rich. Lewis details all the powerful people who wanted to meet with SBF, without ever demonstrating that the attention he was getting was anything other people sucking up to someone with a pile of money. It's possible these people were as delusional as Michael Lewis, heaven help us. Lewis points out that Sam has no use for books or literary criticism, but he still got A's in his English classes which obviously shows the humanities are...fake? Lewis doesn't ask the obvious question of what impact his parents being professors had on the grades SBF's teachers were giving him. Lewis gullibly accepts SBFs claim that no one would have info on his childhood, and thus seemingly decides to not conduct any substantive background. These are just small examples that illustrate the overarching problem of Michael Lewis treating his subject with a remarkable absence of skepticism. It's incredibly disappointing from Lewis and invites questions about how he has treated previous subjects. Has he always been this credulous? Save your money, skip this book.