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this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2026
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TechTakes
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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.
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This has been talked about in the reddit sneerclub, but not yet on awful systems (as far as I could tell with a quick search on this and last week's stubstack)...
Caroline Ellison (the convicted FTX fraudster) got hired for an EA position dealing with financial allocations!
Reddit sneerclub discussion
EA Forums Discussion surprisingly (by the low low bar we have for EA) this announcement was heavily downvoted and all the top comments clearly and frankly denounce Manifund for hiring Ellison, accurately calling out the sheer violation of common sense and the obviously unethical nature of hiring someone because they previously directed money your way that turned out to be stolen. (The Manifund person outright admits this as a motivation!) Not so surprisingly, less upvoted, but still upvoted comments do some hand-wringing about the optics (as opposed to the clear ethical and common sense issues) and some even outright call for forgiveness for Caroline!
The lesswrong discussion is less surprising (as in it is full classic lesswrong fallacies). It starts with considering the optics, and some posters, such as habryka, outright question the existence of any such ethical rule that hiring Caroline might violate! (If there isn't a rule anywhere, its only because "don't hire convicted fraudsters for positions dealing with a lot of money" is such blatant common sense.)
Bonus: A galaxy brain take: maybe since Caroline has already messed up so massively, that means she actually has the best experience!
Makes sense. If I were hiring for an org that funds musicians, I'd consider it a plus for a candidate to have experience in the music business. I'm sure the same applies to an org that funds scammers.
Steelmanning the wallet inspector.
Yeah, this Mohamed Atta guy is a great airline pilot, he just had a botched landing that one time
Prior discussion:
https://awful.systems/post/9637596/12625632
Thanks! I had failed to check back two stubstacks ago.