Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon

Michael Lewis remains the undisputed king of making dry financial concepts feel like a high-stakes thriller. In this book, he masterfully explains how SBF went from a Jane Street trader to the head of a massive empire, all while wearing cargo shorts and ignoring social cues. The scene where Sam is playing League of Legends during a Zoom call with Sequoia Capital is just classic—it perfectly captures the sheer absurdity of the era. The writing is insightful and provides a unique view of the inner workings of FTX that no other reporter could have gotten. I finished this in two sittings. It's a fast-paced deep dive into a world of effective altruism and high-frequency trading that most of us will never see. Highly recommended for fans of The Big Short.

Ever wonder how a bunch of MIT kids managed to gamble away billions while living in a Bahamian penthouse? This book answers that question with the kind of sharp detail and wit only Lewis can provide. The author’s access to Bankman-Fried is truly unparalleled, having shadowed him for months before the house of cards finally fell. Personally, I found the deep dive into the philosophy of Effective Altruism to be the most compelling part of the narrative. It explains the 'why' behind the madness. Lewis doesn't just give us a dry timeline; he paints a vivid picture of a subculture that thought they could save the world by breaking every rule of traditional finance. It’s an excellent, well-researched piece of journalism that reads like a novel. I couldn't put it down.

As someone who followed the FTX collapse through news snippets, this book provided the cohesive narrative I was missing. It is a fascinating read that delves into the psychology of a man who claims to have never felt pleasure—a literal case of anhedonia. Lewis captures the chaotic energy of the FTX offices perfectly. You see the red flags popping up everywhere, yet you understand why so many smart people were drawn into Sam's orbit. To be fair, crypto is still a bit of a mystery to me, but Lewis simplifies the complex trading strategies of Alameda Research enough for a layman to follow. The storytelling is engaging from start to finish. It’s a brilliant character study of an accidental tycoon who lost it all.

This book offers a window into a world so detached from reality that it feels like science fiction. Michael Lewis has a knack for finding these weird, outlier personalities and making them feel human. SBF is perhaps his most complicated subject yet. The book does a great job of showing how the lack of corporate controls and proper accounting wasn't just a mistake, but a fundamental part of how they operated. Some might say Lewis was too sympathetic, but I think he was just trying to understand the 'weirdness' of the situation. The details about his childhood and his time at Jane Street really helped flesh out the man behind the Jew-fro. It’s a masterful explanation of a disaster that seemed inevitable in hindsight.

Finally got around to reading Lewis’s take on the crypto winter, and the truth is, I’m conflicted. On one hand, the writing is propulsive and he manages to humanize a character that the media has spent months demonizing. On the other hand, the pacing feels a bit rushed toward the end, especially once the bankruptcy lawyers like John Ray enter the scene. Lewis clearly spent so much time in the 'before' that the 'after' feels like an afterthought. You get a sense that Sam is less of a villain and more of a socially-stunted genius who simply didn't care about the rules. It’s a fascinating look at the hubris of the effective altruism crowd, but I was left wanting a bit more accountability for the lost customer funds. Still, for a deep dive into how SBF’s brain works—or doesn’t—it’s an essential read.

The chapter on Jane Street alone is worth the price of admission for finance nerds. Lewis deconstructs the world of high-frequency trading with his trademark clarity, showing exactly how Sam learned to view the world as a series of expected value calculations. It is insightful and well-researched, though I did notice a slight lack of empathy for the actual people who lost their life savings in the collapse. The book focuses heavily on the 'inner circle' and their bizarre dynamics. To be fair, the character development is top-notch; you really feel like you’re in that penthouse in the Bahamas watching the chaos unfold. It's a classic Michael Lewis style book, even if the ending feels a little unfinished because the trial was still ongoing. A solid four stars.

Not what I expected from the man who wrote The Big Short. While the prose is undeniably solid, Lewis seems to have been duped by SBF’s 'clueless nerd' routine. Throughout the book, he overlooks major red flags and accepts Sam’s version of events far too easily. He portrays the $8 billion in missing funds as a 'comedy of errors' rather than intentional fraud. Frankly, it’s a bit frustrating to read. However, the background info on the rise of Alameda and the competitive world of crypto exchanges is genuinely interesting. It’s an okay book if you want a character portrait, but don’t expect a forensic accounting of the crimes. The storytelling is there, but the perspective feels skewed and lacks the objective distance needed for such a massive scandal.

To be fair, the storytelling is as sharp as ever, but the subjects are just fundamentally unlikable. I’ve always admired how Lewis can make anyone seem like a hero, from baseball scouts to hedge fund managers. Here, he tries to do the same with Sam Bankman-Fried, but the guy just comes across as a bland, empathy-free robot. It’s hard to root for someone who plays video games during a pitch for hundreds of millions of dollars. The book is well-researched, sure, but it feels like the author got a little too close to the subject. Instead of an objective critique of a massive financial fraud, we get a character study of a guy who thinks he’s too smart for the law. Personally, I struggled to stay engaged with the 'crypto bro' lifestyle. It's an okay book, but definitely not my favorite Lewis work.

Look, if you want a forensic audit of where the eight billion dollars went, you won't find it here. What you will find is a weirdly defensive account of a guy who broke the law but convinced Michael Lewis he was just 'bad at record-keeping.' The book is readable because Lewis is a master, but the 'so what' is missing. I kept waiting for a moment of self-reflection from the author about how he might have been used to spin a narrative. It never comes. The characters, especially Caroline Ellison, feel one-dimensional and are often treated with a strange amount of disdain compared to the 'fallen golden boy.' It’s a fascinating look at the rise of FTX, but as a post-mortem of a fraud, it falls short. It's an okay read for the history, but take it with a huge grain of salt.

Total disappointment from a seasoned journalist who seemingly got played by his own subject. I expected a forensic takedown of the FTX collapse, but instead, this feels like a defensive hagiography. Lewis spent months shadowing SBF and appears to have lost all objectivity in the process. He treats a $8 billion fraud like a 'comedy of errors' rather than a deliberate theft of customer money. The way he portrays Caroline Ellison as a jilted, incompetent ex-lover is particularly gross and feels like he’s just parroting Sam’s talking points. Look, Lewis is a great writer, but his refusal to engage with the actual victims of this scam is baffling. If you want the truth about what happened at FTX, you should probably wait for the trial transcripts or literally any other book. This one is a stain on a previously great reputation.