• Kirp123@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    The difference between 100 million and 11.5 billion is about 11 billion. If you own a bank 11 billion that’s not only that bank’s problem, it’s the economy’s problem.

        • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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          1 month ago

          Well, if you want to get exact, sure. But if we’re talking about half units, like 11 and a half billion, then 11.4 is so close to 11.5 there’s no difference and calling it just about 11 sorta implies that it’s a more significant difference IMO

          • MattBlackAlien@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            You need to be as precise as your resolution, otherwise the precision is meaningless. I guess you could argue that your resolution is units of half-billion (since some things are measured like that), but the initial value of 0.1B, and your use of 0.5 rather than ‘half’ suggests a resolution of 0.1B.

            This is different to the aphorism ‘The difference between a million and a billion is about a billion’, both because of the difference in scale, and the quoted resolution.

            • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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              1 month ago

              If a man worth 11.5 billion loses 100 million, it affects him less than you or I losing a thousand. In fact it doesn’t affect him.

            • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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              1 month ago

              59 seconds is 1000000000000 pico seconds away from a minute, so I’m not sure you could say 59 seconds is “so close” to a minute.

    • Alphane Moon@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 month ago

      I was referring to the general concept behind the quote.

      I originally want to post the OG (apocryphal?) variant:

      Owe Your Banker £1,000 and You Are at His Mercy; Owe Him £1 Million and the Position Is Reversed

      But it sounds rather quaint these days.

    • gian @lemmy.grys.it
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      1 month ago

      Partially, if OpenAI lose 11.5 billion, someone get 11.5 billion, the money is used to pay something it did not vanish in a cloud