Between Going Infinite and Walter Isaacson’s enormous biography of the increasingly daffy and grim Elon Musk, it has been a rough time for the Heroes of Capitalism genre. The future prospects for that type of book are certainly still bright; Americans aren’t going to stop revering rich people just because they are “awful” or “boring” any time soon. But the ways in which Going Infinite falls short suggests a problem that goes beyond a national shortage of sufficiently compelling or just acceptably non-sociopathic rich guys. The fact that Isaacson’s “The Genius Biographies” series has declined from Leonardo Da Vinci to Steve Jobs to Elon Musk suggests not only that the heroes are getting less heroic, but that these books’ usual signifier of genius — vast wealth — has completely decoupled from any personal merit.
If only there were some kind of centralized entity that Reddit, Inc. could embody with the power to manage things like user status and rewards, you could entirely sidestep the need for permissionless blockchain technology. If only…
That the movie rights to Going Infinite sold for a reported $5 million before Lewis even began writing is its own problem, but it also opens onto a solution.
You know, I think Larry David just might have another part to play in this saga. Or maybe Armando Iannucci…
It really does boggle the mind how many obvious ponzi schemes there were (and I guess still are) that somehow convinced millions of people to part with their money.
