[tedyoung]

You are completely reasonable. I've turned down offers because of this exact reason (and it was the only problem with the offer). I tell them that if they won't give me the denominator of the equation, I'll assume it's pretty close to infinity, and value the options aspect of the offer at $0. I think it's shady and manipulative to not provide such details ("but we're giving you 50,000 options!"). What are they trying to hide?

[chrisabrams]

Also, why do these companies think that engineers won't try to find a way to bring math into the equation?

[Kalium]

They're assuming that big numbers will make engineers shut up and stop thinking.