Remember that a lot of action on the stock market is built on speed. If they change the storage format to be 64-bit instead of a 32-bit number that would be a non-backwards compatible data format change. So the data format specification would need a new version, all the software that interacts with it would also need to be updated, and a lot of algorithms will get a bit slower since they now have to deal with a 64-bit number or some other representation.
There are probably some elegant ways to handle this, but again it would require that timing-sensitive software will need to do extra work to see if the value is in the extended format; or they would have to process twice as many bits if all data values are updated to the new format.
Also in in the past most stocks will split for many other reasons when the per share price gets above an easily to handle number. What wasn't predicted is that a company wants to avoid a stock split for whatever reasons they have.
The current pandemic was predicted by many experts. Obama even set up a task force to prepare.
That didn't stop idiots ignoring expert predictions. One orange idiot in particular disbanded the task force to save millions of dollars, and cost the US economy billions because of the slow response to a highly predictable disaster.
It's actually fairly comparable. In both cases, it's likely to happen at some point, you don't know when but by the time it gets close to being a problem you dont have that much time to make the necessary changes.
The stock price of BRK has been grinding higher gradually for a year and was within reach months ago. That this could happen should've been on the radar for a long time and it's definitely a failure if this was a "surprise"
Munger told a story about a secretary they deeply loved and then she died. They thought she couldn't be replaced. Then they realized the new hire was better!
Except the new hires wouldn't have that first hand experience to help them understand the importance of sizing your integers appropriately. Institutional knowledge is a valuable thing.
Spot on. Firing someone for a mistake is incredibly short-sighted. After the mistake has been rectified, you can be sure there is going to be one employee in the organisation who will never ever let that problem happen again. Why do you want to get rid of that person?
Of course, if the person is making the same mistake again, then that may be reason for concern, but that's a completely different discussion
Edit: You guys have no chill.