Danielle Bernstein

During an interview with Lehman Brothers in the 1980s, author Michael Lewis made the mistake of being honest. When the interviewer asked why Lewis wanted to be an investment banker, he answered, “I want to make money.” Lewis later learned from a friend that admitting to loving money was taboo; the correct answers were “the challenge; the people; the thrill of the deal”—even if this was all, as Lewis later wrote in Liar’s Poker, “complete and utter bullshit.”