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Funny how everybody says that he should have done this and not done that. It is really an overwhelming experience to speculate and comment on past matters but d
by pearjuice 13y ago
Funny how everybody says that he should have done this and not done that. It is really an overwhelming experience to speculate and comment on past matters but don't forget that it was him who actually did it. Who actually ran the market place. Who cashed out and probably has reserves here and there. Who pressed that "submit" button on stackoverflow. You weren't capable of doing so. You think you have better ideas about it. That you could "disappear" and never get linked to the real "you". I am not daring you to do try it, as it can land you behind bars, but I am just saying that unless you actually experienced and lived all of this - the commentary is nothing more than a theoretical shim which will never become reality.
- pstuart 13y agoAh, I could have written it in a weekend.... /s
- toadi 13y agoThis happens all the time. It's easy to make decisions if you now all the variables post factum. Sometimes you make decisions without all the knowledge. For people analyzing the lessons learned it's easy...
- MichaelGG 13y agoI'd agree with this sentiment except the mistake is a very fundamental, very flawed one: reusing the same ID. And it was made right at the beginning, when energy is highest. It's not like he made long mistakes over the years leading to an eventual arrest. He allegedly started off by posting with the same ID as his physical person.
- esrauch 13y agoHonestly it is more understandable to make that type of mistake at the beginning; there is no way he could have reasonably assumed that he would later have the level of fame that would make the feds run a high priority effort specifically to catch him.
- grugq 13y agoWithout performing "lessons learned" analysis on failures, how will we ever learn? Conducting this sort of exercise is critical to improving the capabilities of everyone who engages in clandestine activities. Dismissing it out of hand is remarkably short sighted.
- mcintyre1994 13y agoYou don't have to have tried building an international drug ring to see fundamental errors in the way he did things though. His alias was sloppy and insufficiently isolated from his real identity. I don't claim I could have done better, I can think of theoretical improvements but won't claim I'd have implemented them in that situation. You're right that nobody can claim to know they wouldn't make mistakes, but I don't think there's anything illegitimate in pointing those mistakes out.