> Common sense tells me that there’s no way a tv show and a billionaire would let me kill myself and others. So that would make me think that there’s some characteristic of the capsule or the falls that would make the drop survivable.
Right, so you have to weigh this faith in the system (game shows are safe & billionaires won’t do anything extremely risky) against the facts of nature and a suspicious story being told to you. Probably 99.99% of people would push the button.
In a business setting if Branson approved a deal, and the due diligence (safety team) approved a deal, you could be forgiven for assuming it’s a smart deal. But when it comes to decisions you absolutely have to get right he wants people who ignore the advice of others and make their own independent assessment based on facts.
When you assume another team has done their job and they assume you’ve done yours you can get into a circular logic where no one has done their job and most people march forward (see Madoff documentary). In retrospect the risks were obvious and the story unbelievable. He wants that rare person who calls bullshit (Harry Markopolos) when all the other signals are saying “it’s safe”.
Many of the Madoff victims said the same thing: “It’s Madoff”, “It’s registered with the SEC”. They didn’t think a successful billionaire would do something so dumb that it would cost him and those around him everything.
Yes, you can forgive the victims for thinking the system should have protected them and you can still applaud Markopolos for not buying the bullshit and refusing to push the button.
Yes, Branson’s stunt is an imperfect/theatrical version of this and the challenge is biased in favor of people who are indecisive or afraid of heights. Almost all TV is sensationalized to appeal to an audience that wouldn’t be riveted by contestants pouring over a series of hedge fund returns trying to determine if they’re safe or fraudulent investments. It’s more the symbolism that’s important.
One thing I didn't understand about hedge funds is why they limit themselves to only accepting large sums of money from individuals. That concept appeared a lot in the movie about Bernie Madoff. Is it harder to manage a hedge fund with more investors? Once you get the money from them shouldn't the hedge fund be able to use the money just the same as if it came from few rich people?
yeah I got the idea after watching the Bernie Madoff movie and thinking, there is going to be a Madoff level ICO scandal at some point for sure. Only way to help is teach non programmers how blockchain works.
>This documentary didn't reveal anything that wasn't already known.
I really, really hate this sentiment. "Oh look, it's yesterday's news!". It doesn't matter. It should be repeated every day on every station until something is done about this. How can we claim our "society" is anything more than an illusion when people can be arrested for tampering with devices they purchase, but people who steal billions get a small fine for it.
The only thing Madoff did wrong was he didn't steal enough.
Hacker Cinema
5 comments on Hacker News
You can watch a good example of this in the Netflix mini-series on Madoff.
Really shows how he did it using the steps detailed above.
https://www.netflix.com/title/81466159?preventIntent=true
The Wolf of wall street film also shows the same pattern.
> Common sense tells me that there’s no way a tv show and a billionaire would let me kill myself and others. So that would make me think that there’s some characteristic of the capsule or the falls that would make the drop survivable.
Right, so you have to weigh this faith in the system (game shows are safe & billionaires won’t do anything extremely risky) against the facts of nature and a suspicious story being told to you. Probably 99.99% of people would push the button.
In a business setting if Branson approved a deal, and the due diligence (safety team) approved a deal, you could be forgiven for assuming it’s a smart deal. But when it comes to decisions you absolutely have to get right he wants people who ignore the advice of others and make their own independent assessment based on facts.
When you assume another team has done their job and they assume you’ve done yours you can get into a circular logic where no one has done their job and most people march forward (see Madoff documentary). In retrospect the risks were obvious and the story unbelievable. He wants that rare person who calls bullshit (Harry Markopolos) when all the other signals are saying “it’s safe”.
Many of the Madoff victims said the same thing: “It’s Madoff”, “It’s registered with the SEC”. They didn’t think a successful billionaire would do something so dumb that it would cost him and those around him everything.
Yes, you can forgive the victims for thinking the system should have protected them and you can still applaud Markopolos for not buying the bullshit and refusing to push the button.
Yes, Branson’s stunt is an imperfect/theatrical version of this and the challenge is biased in favor of people who are indecisive or afraid of heights. Almost all TV is sensationalized to appeal to an audience that wouldn’t be riveted by contestants pouring over a series of hedge fund returns trying to determine if they’re safe or fraudulent investments. It’s more the symbolism that’s important.
One thing I didn't understand about hedge funds is why they limit themselves to only accepting large sums of money from individuals. That concept appeared a lot in the movie about Bernie Madoff. Is it harder to manage a hedge fund with more investors? Once you get the money from them shouldn't the hedge fund be able to use the money just the same as if it came from few rich people?
yeah I got the idea after watching the Bernie Madoff movie and thinking, there is going to be a Madoff level ICO scandal at some point for sure. Only way to help is teach non programmers how blockchain works.
>This documentary didn't reveal anything that wasn't already known.
I really, really hate this sentiment. "Oh look, it's yesterday's news!". It doesn't matter. It should be repeated every day on every station until something is done about this. How can we claim our "society" is anything more than an illusion when people can be arrested for tampering with devices they purchase, but people who steal billions get a small fine for it.
The only thing Madoff did wrong was he didn't steal enough.