I've studied accounting at school and I've always hated it since then.
To me, accounting is a data model gone wrong. Redundancy, race conditions, unclear semantics, too generic...
I've tried countless times to make sense of it (the latest being today when I read the post with great hope), but I always came to the same conclusion: there must be a better way.
Yet I know the value of the model as a log to record transactions.
We're all confronted to accounting (when we read our bank ledger)... Ask the public, and they'll tell you it's good if there's more money in the credit column than the debit column. This "common wisdom" is false in accounting. What's a debit card? a credit card? What's an account? Isn't it a container for money? not for accountants.
Accounting turns many concepts upside down... and I always fail to bend my mind enough to grasp it.
I admire accountants for succeeding where I fail so miserably, but they're also responsible for the problem. There must be a better way... I was so bad in accounting at school...
To me, accounting is a data model gone wrong. Redundancy, race conditions, unclear semantics, too generic...
I've tried countless times to make sense of it (the latest being today when I read the post with great hope), but I always came to the same conclusion: there must be a better way.
Yet I know the value of the model as a log to record transactions.
We're all confronted to accounting (when we read our bank ledger)... Ask the public, and they'll tell you it's good if there's more money in the credit column than the debit column. This "common wisdom" is false in accounting. What's a debit card? a credit card? What's an account? Isn't it a container for money? not for accountants.
Accounting turns many concepts upside down... and I always fail to bend my mind enough to grasp it.
I admire accountants for succeeding where I fail so miserably, but they're also responsible for the problem. There must be a better way... I was so bad in accounting at school...