Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
More Accounting Wackiness
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2006 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
Remember how I had to stop thinking of debt as a bad thing when I started learning accounting? I've done so. If you're pretty sure you can make money faster than interest on your loan piles up, then it's a good investment and you should do it. Amar Chitra Katha's Yudhisthira said that debt is heavier than a mountain, but I recognize that there is such a thing as a smart investment. Michael Dell and George W. Bush have devalued the words "strategy" and "leadership" respectively, and a zillion spams and ads have similarly devalued the phrase "investment in your future." Yet all of these things actually do exist. Fabulous.
My current hangup: in accounting, the words "increase," "decrease," "debit," and "credit" have no relation whatsoever to their commonsensical counterparts. I've reached the "in real life software would do this for me" point of dismissal.
By the way: thanks, Investopedia.
