I like making people uncomfortable because in my conversation doesn't make people uncomfortable,

good chance I'm not telling the truth.

Due diligence?

One of the most abused phrases in modern finance.

It sounds serious, sounds responsible, sounds professional, gives people psychological cover.

Most of the time, that's all it is, cover.

Due diligence is spoken with confidence.

It's written into investment memos. It's referenced after the fact when something implodes.

It's used as a shield. We did our due diligence. That sentence has almost always said after the

damage is done. Here's the problem. Most of the time,

due diligence is not a process. It's a story people tell themselves you feel safe while moving

fast, while moving recklessly. No collapse in recent history exposes that lie more than FTX.

Sam Bankman-Free did not fool naive investors.

That detail matters.

He didn't fool unsophisticated retail traders clicking buttons on an app.

He fooled the so-called smartest rooms in finance. Venture capital, elite institutions,

regulators, media, academics, people whose reputations are supposed to be built on skepticism.

No accident. That's the signal. If this were just a story about stupidity, though, it'd be irrelevant.

Markets are full of stupid people.

If this was just about crypto, it would be narrow.

FTX matters because it shows something structural.

Narratives overpower evidence.

...