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"I'm pretty sure this is a comprehensive list. Can anyone think of anything I've left out?" Seems like an overly confident statement that has low probability o

"I'm pretty sure this is a comprehensive list. Can anyone think of anything I've left out?" Seems like an overly confident statement that has low probability of being correct. Is this purposely to provoke people into trying to prove you wrong? If so, maybe it's genius, though dishonest. Here's my shot: The comments on the post also mention finance was left out. Well, if we take finance to be a combination of moving things and storing things, it sort of covers part of what's going on, but there's a missing key: lending things. Taking it in reverse, lending by itself wouldn't be enough either, since without moving things and storing things, you can't lend out anything you don't already have. Anyways, I'm pretty sure I came up with an airtight metaphor for finance. Can anyone think of how the metaphor breaks down?

lisper 17y ago
> Is this purposely to provoke people into trying to prove you wrong? I wouldn't put such a negative spin on it. It's purposely to ask people if they can think of anything I've left out, i.e. to spark discussion. I would actually put finance in category 9, mainly 9a and 9b. The whole point of finance is that you're dealing with money, not things. But money is an artificial construct (that's the whole point of money), so dealing with money means dealing with the rules that society has laid down to govern the behavior of money. Indeed, most of the actual activity in the financial industry is doing mathematical modeling (9a) drawing up legal documents (9b). Reasonable people could disagree.
- Locke1689 17y ago
  I guess you could argue that these are the only legitimate ways to make wealth or money. Technically, one can do high speed trading that essentially acts like computerized insider trading (and middle man economics). If someone provides no actual service, but still receives money, is that legitimate?
  - jimmybot 17y ago
    I don't think you could argue that. Finance encompasses a lot more than questionable trading practices. I said finance, and not say banking, since I meant any kind of banking and investing. And there is an equivalence between debt (loans, bonds) and equity ((yc,angel,VC) x investments, stock offerings) since from the perspective of the company, you are paying rents on capital in both cases. Do I need to argue the importance of loans and efficient allocations of capital? If you don't like thinking about this with money, what about with loans of goods?

lisper 17y ago

> Is this purposely to provoke people into trying to prove you wrong? I wouldn't put such a negative spin on it. It's purposely to ask people if they can think of anything I've left out, i.e. to spark discussion. I would actually put finance in category 9, mainly 9a and 9b. The whole point of finance is that you're dealing with money, not things. But money is an artificial construct (that's the whole point of money), so dealing with money means dealing with the rules that society has laid down to govern the behavior of money. Indeed, most of the actual activity in the financial industry is doing mathematical modeling (9a) drawing up legal documents (9b). Reasonable people could disagree.

Locke1689 17y ago
I guess you could argue that these are the only legitimate ways to make wealth or money. Technically, one can do high speed trading that essentially acts like computerized insider trading (and middle man economics). If someone provides no actual service, but still receives money, is that legitimate?
- jimmybot 17y ago
  I don't think you could argue that. Finance encompasses a lot more than questionable trading practices. I said finance, and not say banking, since I meant any kind of banking and investing. And there is an equivalence between debt (loans, bonds) and equity ((yc,angel,VC) x investments, stock offerings) since from the perspective of the company, you are paying rents on capital in both cases. Do I need to argue the importance of loans and efficient allocations of capital? If you don't like thinking about this with money, what about with loans of goods?