Fault Modelling

The extreme difficulty of obtaining solutions by conventional mathematical analysis has led in the past to the use of highly unrealistic models simply because they led to equations that could be solved. In fact, the applied mathematician has been engaged in a continual tussle with his conscience to decide how far he could go in the direction of distorting his model in order to make the equations tractable. The point is well made in the ancient jest about the examination question that began 'An elephant whose mass can be neglected.....'

 - M.V. Wilkes

The Ascent of Money

Money does not make the world go round, it makes staggering quantities of people, goods and services go round the world

The Ascent of Money

I have recently started reading the book "The Ascent of Money" by Niall Ferguson. This book carries a lot of insight into the economic history and evolution of the world to the present day financial markets. Needless to say, it conveys a lot of information about human behaviour regarding money since times ancient. I will be sharing some of the interesting quotes I come across in this book on my blog.
The first one to go is

When human beings first began to keep written records of their activities, they did so not to write history, poetry or philosophy, but to do business and keep accounts
 - Niall Ferguson