Austin Chen on Winning, Risk-Taking, and FTX
post by Elizabeth (pktechgirl) · 2025-04-07T19:00:08.039Z · LW · GW · 3 commentsContents
3 comments
Timothy and I have recorded a new episode of our podcast with Austin Chen of Manifund (formerly of Manifold, behind the scenes at Manifest).
The start of the conversation was contrasting each of our North Stars- Winning (Austin), Truthseeking (me), and Flow (Timothy), but I think the actual theme might be “what is an acceptable amount of risk taking?” We eventually got into a discussion of Sam Bankman-Fried, where Austin very bravely shared his position that SBF has been unwisely demonized and should be “freed and put back to work”. He by no means convinced me or Timothy of this, but I deeply appreciate the chance for a public debate.
Episode:
Transcript (this time with filler words removed by AI)
Editing policy: we allow guests (and hosts) to redact things they said, on the theory that this is no worse than not saying them in the first place. We aspire but don’t guarantee to note serious redactions in the recording. I also edit for interest and time.
3 comments
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comment by Austin Chen (austin-chen) · 2025-04-08T05:36:03.779Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Thanks to Elizabeth for hosting me! I really enjoyed this conversation; "winning" is a concept that seems important and undervalued among rationalists, and I'm glad to have had the time to throw ideas around here.
I do feel like this podcast focused a bit more on some of the weirder or more controversial choices I made, which is totally fine; but if I were properly stating the case for "what is important about winning" from scratch, I'd instead pull examples like how YCombinator won, or how EA has been winning relative to rationality in recruiting smart young folks. AppliedDivinityStudies's "where are all the successful rationalists" is also great.
Very happy to answer questions ofc!
Replies from: pktechgirl, winstonBosan↑ comment by Elizabeth (pktechgirl) · 2025-04-08T16:32:21.618Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
I would love to hear more about yc (and especially how you think it changed over time)
↑ comment by winstonBosan · 2025-04-08T19:57:22.084Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
"Winning" is underpractied certainly, but undervalued!? I find that a bit hard to believe. (Currently reading the transcript, will change opinion if winning means differently than what Eliezer oft mentions)
> Rationality is Systematized Winning [LW · GW] by Eliezer Yudkowsky [LW · GW]