Going Infinite

The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon

By: Michael Lewis

Narrated by: Michael Lewis

Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

'I asked him how much it would take for him to sell FTX and go do something other than make money. He thought the question over. "One hundred and fifty billion dollars," he finally said-though he added that he had use for "infinity dollars"...'

Sam Bankman-Fried wasn't just rich. Before he turned thirty he'd become the world's youngest billionaire, making a record fortune in the crypto frenzy. CEOs, celebrities and world leaders vied for his time. At one point he considered paying off the entire national debt of the Bahamas so he could take his business there.

Then it all fell apart.

Who was this Gatsby of the crypto world, a rumpled guy in cargo shorts, whose eyes twitched across TV interviews as he played video games on the side, who even his million-dollar investors still found a mystery? What gave him such an extraordinary ability to make money - and how did his empire collapse so spectacularly?

Michael Lewis was there when it happened, having got to know Bankman-Fried during his epic rise. In Going Infinite he tells us a story like no other, taking us through the mind-bending trajectory of a character who never liked the rules and was allowed to live by his own. Both psychological portrait of a preternaturally gifted 'thinking machine', and wild financial roller-coaster ride, this is a twenty-first-century epic of high-frequency trading and even higher stakes, of crypto mania and insane amounts of money, of hubris and downfall. No one could tell it better.

©2023 Michael Lewis (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

Life is what happens between Michael Lewis books. (Michael Hofmann)

Unexpectedly great

No real interest in Crypto but thought if anyone could make it interesting it would be Michael Lewis. He did

Excellent

Fascinating “inside” perspective of “Sam’s world”. I think this is one of Micheal Lewis’s best books. I couldn’t stop listening to it and I’m definitely going to listen to it again.

Another hagiography by Lewis, but fun

it is not as ass-kissing as other people say, but I strongly suggest that you read "Number Go Up" and "Easy Money" for a more balanced perspective

that said, the book is well written and gripping as per usual for ML

A great story that fills in a lot of interesting little details

SBF is a fascinating character - well written and researched - looking forward to Part 2
Thanks

Excellent

Listened to it twice in immediate succession. How unusual to have such an "inside" perspective, so early in the process.

As always, Lewis finds a unique angle

As so many other people, I expected this to be a brutal takedown piece of one of the most reviled figures of recent memory. I should have known better.

Lewis never tells the story you think he is going to, but somehow always ends up telling a better one, and from an angle you never considered.

Many reviewers seem to think that Lewis is somehow taken in by SBF and is way too kind to him. This is missing the point entirely. He never makes excuses for SBF and has no illusions as to his culpability in everything that has happened.

Going Infinite is a balanced, nuanced take that is just as harsh on the people who allowed themselves to be fooled by promises they knew were too good to be true. Bankman-Fried unwittingly turns out to be the ultimate bull in a china shop, and while you can be angry that the bull wrecked everything, you also have to wonder who the hell let him in there in the first place.

Loved it. Highly recommended.

This is a great book. It gives you a deeper insight into the dealings of FTX in its glory days and right before it crashed.

Lewis's best inside view since Liars Poker

While Lewis's seemingly at times naive appreciation for SBF can be head scratching, but the story told has the feeling of a fly on the wall of a real life white collar network television show, except the characters involved are way less sexy and introverted, and the finally is financial collapse.

A story of two blind men

Sam who cannot see what he doesn't know so guesses "calculates" many things wrong. Michael who does not see the story "I don't know what happened, but in the future we would have more so it is ok" is not a good one.

Captivating read but....

Lazy

Michael Lewis clearly had a deadline to finish this book and decided the path of least resistance was the right one. He literally glossed over so many key issues including the most important issue at hand, the fraud. He seemed happy to give SBF and his associates a “pass” on the fact that they stole other peoples money because he was an effective altruist ? It was someone else’s money! Just because you are an EA and have some deluded vision that your elite liberal views are right for all of us doesn’t justify the means. This is the last book of his I will buy. It’s fabulous complicated story of human nature where Lewis had unrivalled access and like a character in money ball Michael deserves to be sent back to the Farm league.

PS while I am involved in crypto and lost a very small amount of money that is not my motivator.