Confessions of a Korean-American Man in New York City

A few weeks back, I had the great opportunity to have lunch with one of my favorite authors of all time: Michael Lewis. He is the gentlemen who wrote Liar's Poker, Moneyball, and most recently The Blind Side. I read Liar's Poker while in St. Tropez and it's still a great read two decades later. What's funny is that I vacation with Hedge Fund peeps that are buried in more money than what Michael made back in his days with Soloman (mid 80s), but a $250K bonus check was monumental back then. Obviously there's been great inflation with Wall Street salaries but the book is still a great read because it's a kind of window into a unique time on Wall Street, where smoking and inappropriate behavior was accepted behavior: men bullied one another and being misogynistic fielded no complaints from women.

What I found fascinating about Michael's life and also about how he arrived in finding a topic for his books was that it's essentially serendipitous. His first book Liar's Poker would've never happened without a random dinner that lead to his hiring at Solmon Brothers. The rest is history. He's an incredibly smart guy with a very pragmatic view of the world. Moneyball and The Blind Side is really statistical story telling. He has an uncanny way of uncovering undervalued assets. Michael Lewis is the Warren Buffet of sports.

One of the funniest things he told me was the difference between baseball and football players. Let me preface his comments with this: baseball is close to his heart. Okay, so he said that football players are much more pleasant and smarter people. And baseball players aren't as nice and not as smart. When you think about it, baseball players are drafted out of high school and the intelligence level required to play baseball is pretty minimal. You don't need to be smart to hit a 95mph fastball; you need great hand eye coordination. I think Manny Ramirez has the quote that best describes the intellect of a baseball player: "I see the ball I hit the ball." As he put it, football players at least are surrounded by books in college so that's a better starting point. Plus, football requires a lot of thinking with complex plays, terminology and execution.

I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch with Michael because he's intellectually curious and just fun to converse with. I didn't bring this up but he happens to be the husband of Tabitha Soren, one of the earliest MTV VJs.