So the VMS was probably not written for a wealthy patron. I wonder what the payback was for Einstein's notes? Regards, Dana Scott ----- Original Message ----- From: Nick Pelling Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2002 2:57 PM To: voynich@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: VMs: 20-second MBA course... HI Jorge,
>Still, making money (which is all that MBAs learn about) is only the
>first half of Life's Problem. The other half, perhaps the hardest one,
>is spending it. And I would say that people are as amazingly creative
>in the latter as they are in the former...
Speaking as an MBA student :-) , even though many MBA courses are trying to
move away from the whole money-is-everything weltanschauung (or should I
call it "geltanschauung"?), you're right, they're not doing very well at
it. :-/
Perhaps it'll take a generation for all this old-fashioned MBA nonsense to
subside - or maybe a decade. :-/
Still... here's Nick's 20-second MBA course for you all... you lucky
people. :-)
Before taking on a project, work out its "NPV", its
"Net Present Value". To do this, add up all present and
predicted costs and revenues associated with the project,
but adjust them for inflation (etc) into 'today money'.
Does this investment in time and money make you more
than any other alternative you can see? If yes, do it! :-)
Now you're all MBAs. :-)
Then again, this isn't really so different from Herodotus saying "Look to
the end, no matter what it is you are considering. Often enough, God gives
a man a glimpse of happiness, and then utterly ruins him." Machiavelli also
says much the same, about not starting on a path until you have planned
right through to the end.
So: in purely MBA terms, my question is this - what was the NPV of the Voynich?
If you look at something like John de Foxton's Liber Cosmographiae, that
had a number of wealthy patrons bankrolling it from the start - not
atypical at all.
ISTM that one internal paradox of the VMS is that, if it *had* been done
for a wealthy patron (as many similar documents were), it didn't apparently
give that patron any benefit - ie, it didn't end up with any kind of
patronly provenance. So what was its payback?
Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....
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