= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
rhollerith_dot_com comments on Studying business. Rational organizations. - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (22)
Do you know the difference (in purpose) between managerial accounting and financial accounting? What about the difference between return on equity and rate of increase in stock price (assuming that the company is publicly traded)? Is the U.S. budget deficit more like an expense or a liability? How about the U.S. debt? In other words, learn basic accounting. (On Hacker News most participants have not.) Whole Foods and Apple are both very successful business. One has very high "variable cost" (or as the economists say, "marginal cost" or "cost at the margin") and consequently their marginal income or "profit margin" is much lower. Which one is it? If you own stock in some company, do you care more about its marginal income's being high or its return on equity's being high?
Each of these questions has an unambiguous answer that all accountants and informed businessmen will agree on.
How might one go about learning basic accounting? Any good textbooks you recommend?
(The reason for the lateness of my reply is that I haven't checked LW in couple of months.)
I took a sequence of two introductory classes (titled "financial accounting" and "managerial accounting") at a third-rate college. That was very valuable. (They were very easy classes.) Just reading a textbook or two would probably suffice for you. I do not have any textbook titles to recommend, but it seems hard to screw up a textbook on introductory accounting, so I'd just pick the texts that are easiest for you to get your hands on. A 50-year-old textbook is probably OK, BTW; the material has not changed much.
After digesting a textbook or two, if you still want to learn more, or if you want to complement your general knowledge with much more specific knowledge from an expert practitioner of a field in which knowledge of accounting practices is required, I recommend Ian Grigg's blog.
That was great. This is definitely stuff I'm learning more about.
Any other area you see the HN crowd lacking in?
That's the only one that comes to mind and is worth pointing out. If I had more experience teaching people, it might be worthwhile for me to say more, but I do not.
They are also lacking in the art of having correct beliefs as taught and practiced here on LW, but you probably already knew that.
Would you mind providing the answers? I took an intro accounting course, and I think I know them, but it was a long time ago and I would like to check myself.
PM sent.
Sorry about the double post, my internet gave out.
Would you mind providing the answers? I'm just curious, I think I remember them all (I took an intro accounting course) but I want to see if I'm right.