logoalt Hacker News

matsemann • today at 8:18 AM • 5 replies • view on HN

Yeah, that's the problem with this. Should one get the present day value of the shares (a billion), or present day value of the worth at that time (thousands)?

It's a bit the same as people making fun of someone buying a pizza with bitcoin, now worth a hundred thousand. It wasn't at the time, and most likely people would've sold it long before when it started to rise. And the hindsight should then be just as much "if you bought a pizza at the time in USD, why didn't you buy bitcoin instead??".

So to me one should get the latter of the two alternatives. People only come out of the woodwork because it suddenly happened to be worth a lot.


Replies

busyant • today at 12:01 PM

> People only come out of the woodwork because it suddenly happened to be worth a lot.

I used to work in pharma with a chemist whose medicinal chem team had invented 3 different multi-billion-$ prescription drugs.

He told me ... no one gives a shit about your patents unless you start to make money. when that happens, your competitors suddenly remember that they invented your drug before you did.

He spent a considerable amount of time being deposed by lawyers from rival big-pharma companies.

Skwid • today at 10:32 AM

Aye, quite so. I once wiped a drive with a whole bitcoin I mined myself on it.

I'm not that upset because I know for a fact I would have cashed out at the obvious peak of about $30.

The one that does cause the occasional pang of remorse is the million or so dogecoin I gave away, as by the time I realised it was worth anything at all it was worth more than my house

➕ show 2 replies
mosburger • today at 1:37 PM

Yeah, I tell myself this every time I remember clicking "Cancel" on Ameritrade and deciding not to buy Apple stock in 1995. I probably would've sold when it doubled, thinking myself very clever. I wouldn't still have it today.

➕ show 1 reply
testing22321 • today at 2:14 PM

> People only come out of the woodwork because it suddenly happened to be worth a lot

Isn’t that the entire point of agreeing to be paid in options instead of salary?

cryptoz • today at 8:22 AM

The pizza-bitcoin story is about $1B, not a measly $100,000, FWIW. Assuming you're referring to the 10k BTC for 2 pizzas story, anyway.

➕ show 2 replies