Caroline Ellison says FTX founder SBF hoped to be US president someday | Hacker News Reader

Caroline Ellison says FTX founder SBF hoped to be US president someday

ca.finance.yahoo.com

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“There is a tragic flaw in our precious constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.”

― Kurt Vonnegut

This is why in ancient Athenian democracy, sortition was the traditional and primary method for appointing political officials.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition

He still could be! And by the looks of things, he might not even be the first to win from prison.

That’s why anyone who wants to be president should be automatically disqualified from running

/s?

Doesn't every candidate by definition "want to be president"?

Umm, debatable (no pun intended), they often need convincing and then the toll it takes on some...

I thought W wasn't all that into it, at least according to that Cheney movie

That movie was a complete fabrication. Not even trying to be partisan here—the writer-director was accused of making stuff up and zero fact checking when it came out and his response was “well yeah, I was going for the feel of the era.”

And the candidates I've seen are no good. The best person for the job is someone who doesn't want it.

Though the story goes that Washington didn't want the job, so he could have been okay.

Is that how that works? The guy with no experience in the job, does nothing all day, rejects work holistically, lives in his parent basement, is the single best person to do everything in the world?

I'd think he's a depressed, useless, complete loser. The only thing I'd trust that guy with is my *coffee order, and that's questionable.

I know you're mostly repeating a meme statement on the internet, but I'd wish it not be repeated, because we both know you don't really believe it.

*I don't drink coffee. Probably never will.

> I'd wish it not be repeated, because we both know you don't really believe it.

I'm reasonably confident most people here understand the semantic behind the meme, rather than taking it at the face value as if it's a statement in a program.

Don't take it too far, there's people advocating for proto-democracy in this thread and not being treated like an idiot such as I am.

No, you think I said that "a person who doesn't want the job is best for the job."

(Not want) implies (Qualified)

What I said was "there is a best qualified person for the job, and that person does not want it."

(Qualified) implies (Not Want)

Presumably, because they understand what the job entails and have better things to do.

Very few candidates for President have prior experience in that job.

You’re conflating not want the job with not want a job

I've always been supportive of the idea of kidnapping a random sample of citizens and forcing them to serve the country for a limited term. In fact I think this idea was unironically considered by the Greeks at one point or another...

That would be Ancient Athenian sortition [1], but it wasn't a random sample - they were drawn from a self selected set of citizens. It was random-ish.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenian_democracy#Selection_b...

Interestingly we still have some vestige of this in the jury selection process.

It was not just considered, it was the original democracy.

sort of like the a jury system

This was actually depicted in Arthur C. Clarke's book "Songs of Distant Earth": a distant robo-seeded colony of Earth is visited by the last starship from dying Earth, on the way to another world (this world doesn't have enough land area for all the humans on the starship) to rebuild its ice shield. The society on this world is very small, about the size of a small city, since it's basically one small island on a waterworld. The society has a mayor, who is drafted for the job, with only one disqualification: anyone who actually wants the job is barred from having it.

Part of the electoral college in some Greek cities was chosen randomly.

From memory a third of what would be our chamber.

That was design to keep the other in check.

There was a big revivance of that idea in Western Europe 10 years ago.

What happened to freedom of speech? What if a citizen doesn't want to serve the country?

Not always. There are occasionally people who want to make a point (Jay Inslee), or who have enough fame or money to force themselves onto the national stage.

The latter strategy of using your fame doesn't usually get far, although occasionally you get a comedian or television personality who makes it far enough.

I'm talking about Pat Paulsen, of course. Who were you thinking of? :)

I don't think Trump really wanted to win in 2016.

Sortition exists.

I've always thought it should be looked at like jury duty.

"aw man...I gotta go be president this month...that's going to totally blow our vacation"

At president selection panel: “If you make me president I’ll give all our budget to Hamas, so don’t”

Any cook should be able to run the country.

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