THE SAM BANKMAN-FRIED, ALVY SINGER CONNECTION REVEALED! Lawyer’s Argument: SBF Suffers From Anhedonia:

• His mother’s letter: Barbara Fried flagged her son’s social awkwardness, which she framed as putting his life at risk, per Business Insider. “I genuinely fear for Sam’s life in the typical prison environment. Sam’s outward presentation, his inability to read or respond appropriately to many social cues, and his touching but naive belief in the power of facts and reason to resolve disputes, put him in extreme danger.”
• His father echoed that: Joseph Bankman wrote the prison setting “would put Sam in an environment where his responses to social cues will sometimes be seen as odd, inappropriate, and disrespectful; when that happens, he will be in significant physical danger. Nothing can justify putting him at that risk.”
• His lawyers’ argument: They say a lesser sentence is appropriate because FTX’s customers will end up getting their money back during bankruptcy proceedings (in part because of savvy investments Bankman-Fried made in the AI company Anthropic). “That recommendation is grotesque,” they wrote, noting “victims are poised to recover—were always poised to recover—a hundred cents on the dollar.”

• His lawyers’ argument II: The Wall Street Journal notes they also bristled at the prosecution’s depiction of Bankman-Fried as a high-roller with a “lavish penthouse lifestyle in the Bahamas.” They said his goals were altruistic, not self-serving, and that material possessions don’t motivate him. “Those who know Sam are sensitive to the tragic fact that nothing in life brings him real happiness. Sam suffers from anhedonia, a severe condition characterized by a near-complete absence of enjoyment, motivation, and interest. He has been that way since childhood.”

Yes, I get SBF and the earlier, funnier Woody Allen confused all the time, myself:

Until it was finished, ”Annie Hall” was hush-hush. Nobody knew where the shooting was going on in New York or even what the name of the movie was. Mr. Allen didn’t know the name either. He and Mr. Brickman considered 100 possibilities. Right up until the end, the favored title was ”Anhedonia.” But hardly anyone knew what the word meant, so it was jettisoned.

”Anhedonia is a psychological state where nothing gives a person pleasure,” he explained. “The word hedonism is in it. We diagnosed that as Alvy’s problem; nothing gives him any pleasure.”

SBF may or may not be impacted by anhedonia, but does he suffer from the crippling effects of anatidaephobia?

(H/T: The Ricochet “Glop” podcast.)