Pepsi’s $32B Typo Caused Deadly Riots
121–130 of 197 posts
Re: Pepsi’s $32B Typo Caused Deadly Riots
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh, I think it's debatable and not pedantic. I literally clicked on the link because I inferred the headline to mean that Pepsi made a typo that somehow cost them $32B. And re: your example, I would not call that a "$200MM typo", I would call it a typo. If I intended to write a check for $200 and later when it was cashed found I had accidentally wrote it for $220, I would call that a $20 typo.
> If I intended to write a check for $200 and later when it was cashed found I had accidentally wrote it for $220, I would call that a $20 typo. So my example was a "$199,999,800 typo"? Can't we just round up?
The relevant difference between our examples is not the amount. It's that my example check was cashed and therefore cost me $20. Your example check bounced and didn't cost you anything. If that bounce caused your bank to charge you a $10 fee, I'd call it a $10 typo.
Re: Pepsi’s $32B Typo Caused Deadly Riots
#123On a tangent, the author Sean Kernan is a profilic writer on Quora.
Re: Pepsi’s $32B Typo Caused Deadly Riots
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eh, I think it's debatable and not pedantic. I literally clicked on the link because I inferred the headline to mean that Pepsi made a typo that somehow cost them $32B. And re: your example, I would not call that a "$200MM typo", I would call it a typo. If I intended to write a check for $200 and later when it was cashed found I had accidentally wrote it for $220, I would call that a $20 typo.
I inferred the headline to mean what it actually did, and was surprised to find comments here like yours. I would even argue that is the true literal meaning. The fact that it caused riots was especially a giveaway. If Pepsi had actually paid out after making their mistake, why would there be riots? Yes I can imagine situations (e.g. they only paid out after there were deadly riots) but it still leads you to the righ…
Taken a whole, I can see what you mean about the article title. I think this is a just bad title, but titles are hard (:
> I would still call it a $20 typo if you then didn't cash in that cheque.
Interesting. To me calling something a "$XX [typo|mistake|error|etc.]" means that the typo/error/mistake resulted in a loss of $XX. Any other way to read that feels confusing.
Re: Pepsi’s $32B Typo Caused Deadly Riots
#125For everybody who was saying "Wikipedia is complete, there's nothing left to write about" yesterday, as far as I can there is not a word about this on the whole site, certainly not on the Pepsi page. Time to get to work! https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?search=Pepsi+349&ns0=1&... Edit: I stand corrected, there is a single paragraph in here. Nothing standalone/linkable though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_in…
People think Wikipedia is complete??? I could add stuff in my field of specialty constantly . I just don't want to jump through all the hoops that come with being a wikipedia contributor, so I keep all my notes on a private wiki.
I have been editing Wikipedia for more than 5 years now. I usually get little push back for the edits I add. I try to keep every sentence cited and use my best judgement with the POV of sources. The worst experience I've had was people deleting content that they viewed through an ethnic chauvinist lens, or someone who strongly believed a statement with little documented evidence (both on the same article.) I keep seeing this viewpoint on HN, but I really thing editing is pretty smooth for most people. There are problems - the visual editor is only visible to those logged in, for example, and there are a good number of rules. But, in general, being bold has been rewarding.
Re: Pepsi’s $32B Typo Caused Deadly Riots
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really? You don't think a corporations blunder that took lives and led to riots is deserving of inclusion? I can say Pepsi certainly doesn't want it there, your motivations are interely baffling though.
I think it was a technical blunder and I don't buy into the idea that they're responsible for the actions of individuals in a riot. If someone upset that they (or more likely someone else) should have won a prize takes actions that lead to the death of another ... I don't believe Pepsi is responsible for that.
So then let people come to that conclusion on their own after they've read the facts. The Wikipedia content shouldn't imply fault. It just needs to document what actually happened.
Re: Pepsi’s $32B Typo Caused Deadly Riots
#127Having lived for some time in a third world country that has real poverty and real day to day security worries, situations like this spring to mind when people completely without optics compare their situations to those in developing nations. Yes, as insanely ignorant as that sounds it happens. People here on HN last week, as one example, were trying to compare their experiences recently protesting to the Arab Spring…
No matter what issue you examine, you can doubtlessly find that somebody somewhere at sometime had it even worse. I think these kind of observations are usually unproductive though; taking this attitude to it's logical absurd conclusion would have you telling people to stop complaining because at least they're not in death camps.
It’s not about who has it worse. That completely misses the point. It’s about accurately reflecting on your personal situation and not drawing absurd conclusions to justify a personal opinion. Let’s call this Dunning-Kruger for sympathy.
If you are trying to qualify who has it worse you aren’t focused on a materially objective outcome. For example many of the people protesting in the US in the past few weeks are trying to raise awareness of systemic racism and for police accountability (different issues, by the way). Most of those people aren’t asking for your sympathy because they are looking for impactful change which isn’t found in sympathy.
Re: Pepsi’s $32B Typo Caused Deadly Riots
#128Pepsi's typo may have triggered riots, but it is very unlikely to have caused them.
Re: Pepsi’s $32B Typo Caused Deadly Riots
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've always looked at it this way "things must be pretty bad if lighting yourself on fire sounds like a better alternative then living" I dont need to understand the particulars beyond that.
I honestly think that there are people in the US who feel distraught enough to do so, but they know that it wouldn't do any good for anyone else -- they would be ignored, or labeled as "crazy". No doubt life in the US is still much better than many other places, but we have to remember that protest itself has been systematically marginalized and penalized as a form of expression, and adjust our evaluation of the stat…
So they suffer enough to want to burn themselves, but won’t because they fear being labeled crazy?
I feel that comparing the suffering of such an individual to the suffering of people who actually burned themselves to protest the oppression they experienced is insulting to the sacrifice of the later.
I agree with the sentiment of the protests in the USA, but there is no need to invent fictional martyrs who “could have been”.
Re: Pepsi’s $32B Typo Caused Deadly Riots
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
How else would you define there to be only two winning numbers then? If you define the winning number afterwards, there’s no way telling how many numbers of those would’ve been in circulation.
Make the winner number outside the normal printed range.
I mean...that's what they tried to do...