4 ms·

> You can’t calculate NPV. You can only estimate it. According to Merrian-Webster [1]: calculate: 1 b: to reckon by exercise of practical judgment : ESTIMATE

• jameshart 4y ago
  Okay, weird bit of pedantry - pretty sure that if a math test asks you to ‘calculate the product of 127 and 954’ you wouldn’t get many marks for answering ‘about 100,000’, but feel free to staple a copy of the dictionary definition to your exam paper and see if that works for you. But sure, let me clarify it to: you can’t calculate a precise NPV. You can only estimate one. Which, when we are trying to do things like ‘calculate the total assets a bank has’, makes the net present value of their assets a not very reliable number to use.
  • pg314 4y ago
    > Okay, weird bit of pedantry - pretty sure that if a math test asks you to ‘calculate the product of 127 and 954’ you wouldn’t get many marks for answering ‘about 100,000’, but feel free to staple a copy of the dictionary definition to your exam paper and see if that works for you. I wasn't taking a math test. I was saying something about NPV using a common meaning of an English word. You chose to ascribe a different meaning to that word, and pedantically - and incorrectly - tried to correct me.