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I couldn't agree with this more. It's human nature not to prepare for a theoretical risk. But once it's happened to you, and to many others in the same industry

I couldn't agree with this more. It's human nature not to prepare for a theoretical risk. But once it's happened to you, and to many others in the same industry, it's just foolishness not to invest in prevention. I imagine there's also a bit of outsider-preference going on here. There's no lack of people who could have been hired to implement controls and audits that would have easily caught a slow leak of coins, but they're part of the Obsolete Fiat Economy and thus irrelevant. "Dunning-Krugerrands", indeed.

sneak 13y ago
I don't think your (or their) equating "competent programmers and businesspeople with common sense" with "obsolete fiat economy" is what happened - it's not really a meaningful logical jump. There's got to be something else.
mtkd 13y ago
> It's human nature not to prepare for a theoretical risk That's a substantial generalisation. Some people, especially in software engineering, spend a great deal of their day thinking how best to prepare for theoretical risk.
- rsanders 13y ago
  Yes, it is a substantial generalization, or perhaps a sentence not carefully crafted to withstand nitpicking. In my job I do the very thing you describe. That said, I'm spending a lot more of my day preparing for the more likely risks, rather than the ones I can just dream up. I doubt many people here are posting from their bomb shelters full of emergency food and water rations, antibiotics, radiation treatments, either. My point is that I could forgive the first lapse. Fool me once, and so on. But Mt. Gox had their precarious position quite expensively demonstrated to them. A competent management team would have made security and fraud management their top priority nearly 3 years ago when they were last caught with their pants down. It's hard to see them as victims in this because they were so negligent in their responsibilities to their customers.

sneak 13y ago

I don't think your (or their) equating "competent programmers and businesspeople with common sense" with "obsolete fiat economy" is what happened - it's not really a meaningful logical jump. There's got to be something else.

mtkd 13y ago

> It's human nature not to prepare for a theoretical risk That's a substantial generalisation. Some people, especially in software engineering, spend a great deal of their day thinking how best to prepare for theoretical risk.

rsanders 13y ago
Yes, it is a substantial generalization, or perhaps a sentence not carefully crafted to withstand nitpicking. In my job I do the very thing you describe. That said, I'm spending a lot more of my day preparing for the more likely risks, rather than the ones I can just dream up. I doubt many people here are posting from their bomb shelters full of emergency food and water rations, antibiotics, radiation treatments, either. My point is that I could forgive the first lapse. Fool me once, and so on. But Mt. Gox had their precarious position quite expensively demonstrated to them. A competent management team would have made security and fraud management their top priority nearly 3 years ago when they were last caught with their pants down. It's hard to see them as victims in this because they were so negligent in their responsibilities to their customers.