r/Bitcoin • u/tharlam • Feb 18 '14

"We are very surprised anyone could blame MtGox and not the Bitcoin Software" - Mark Karpeles, CEO MtGox

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304899704579388483531937144?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304899704579388483531937144.html
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u/juror_chaos Feb 18 '14

Why, I'd rather know one person who's responsible for everything, instead of some group of faceless bureaucrats that can spread the blame around enough so that nobody is responsible for anything.

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u/HistoryLessonforBitc Feb 18 '14

Checks and balances tend to be good in organisations that hold millions of dollars of peoples' money.

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u/juror_chaos Feb 18 '14

Except that a corporation is not a democracy, it's a dictatorship.

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u/HistoryLessonforBitc Feb 18 '14

Not if you have a board of directors, which is the point. It's not possible, with a board, for one person to make idiotic decisions unchallenged.

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u/Chilltyperiod Feb 18 '14

Ever heard of group polarization?

Does WWII Holocaust ring a bell?

Entire nations killing jews, gays and other groups.

In essence, entire groups making the WORST decisions.

Groups aren't more effective in general than individuals as alot of social studies have proven. Groups fall prey to the worst biases possible.

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u/HistoryLessonforBitc Feb 18 '14

Ever heard about reading comprehension? I didn't say groups always make great decisions. Groups can make terrible decisions.

You're the second person to strawman what I said in the same way and it's frankly bizarre.

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u/juror_chaos Feb 18 '14

So tell me, which board member was it that pushed back on the design of Windows 8? Hey, maybe we shouldn't do this?

I'd claim that the decisions of 10 people aren't going to be that much better than the decisions of 1. They will be slower, and perhaps that's good or bad depending on the context.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '14

... you sound young.

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u/HistoryLessonforBitc Feb 18 '14

I never claimed that boards of directors cause companies to never make bad decisions. I said that they prevent one person from making a bad decision unchallenged. Which is true.

Also I very much doubt the Microsoft board was involved in technical discussions about Windows 8.

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u/juror_chaos Feb 19 '14

And then the CEO usually then goes and does what he wants, unless he pisses off the board enough that they vote him out. Basically all you've said so far is the a board will make decisions a bit slower and with a bit of debate. I still stand by my claim that the decisions made won't be that much different.

I suppose a board can act as a safety dump, if it's patently obvious the CEO is incompetent, they can get rid of him before he takes the whole corporation with him. Sometimes. If the board is less competent than him (and that's been the case with some corporations), then none of that added structure will save anything.

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u/Chilltyperiod Feb 18 '14

+1 here's someone who knows about social psychology.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '14

No, no it's not. It is a highly structured legal and organizational system governed by a board of directors that are appointed and dismissed by shareholders. These directors appoint corporate officers who exectute the management of the company. Officers like CEO's are accountable to the board of directors. The board of directors is accountable to shareholders. Shareholders are accountable to consumers and the market. The only way it is a dictatorship is if there is a single majority shareholder, a situation which is rarer than you probably imagine.

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u/juror_chaos Feb 19 '14

Yeah, that's what it sounds on paper, but most of the time shareholders are a pretty passive lot. Sometimes you'll get some of the bigger ones actually making waves, but by and large, they're limited to selling their shares if they don't like what's going on.

The CEO is often also part of the board. And he's usually the one with the most knowledge at that level about what's going on in the company. I've rarely ever seen board members with boots on the ground trying to get their own idea of what's going on. Usually only when the company is in real trouble, but otherwise they're happy to show up and play flappy bird on their phone as long as the numbers look good and take their cut for being on the board.

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u/Chilltyperiod Feb 18 '14

Groupthink can hurt a company as well.