Page 112 - Forbes - Asia (December 2019 - January 2020)

THOUGHTS ON
VALUE
“Just because people throw it
out and don’t have any use for
it doesn’t mean it’s garbage.”
Andy Warhol
“Value is not made of money,
but a tender balance of
expectation and longing.”
Barbara Kingsolver
“Who steals my purse steals
trash; ’tis something, nothing.”
William Shakespeare
“Statements of fact are
after all statements, which
presumes a number of
questionable judgments.”
Terry Eagleton
“Every advance in knowledge
brings us face to face with the
mystery of our own being.”
Max Planck
“Beauties in vain their pretty
eyes may roll; charms strike the
sight, but merit wins the soul.”
Alexander Pope
“Look beneath the surface;
let not the several quality
of a thing nor its worth
escape thee.”
Marcus Aurelius
“Law, and force, and ether,
and the like, are merely
useful symbols, while the
ignorant and the careless
take them for adequate
expressions of reality.”
Thomas Henry Huxley
“Gold is the corpse of
value. Wealth stored up
in gold is dead.”
Neal Stephenson
108 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2019 / JANUARY 2020
“Price is a proposed point
of agreement between a
buyer and seller. The
proposal is the key. It is not
a marching order.”
Jeffrey Tucker
“Networks gain sovereignty
through their own digital
currency.”
Olaf Carlson-Wee
“It is in dialogue with pain
that many beautiful things
acquire their value.”
Alain de Botton
“One does not cease to treasure
a gem simply because one owns
another that is larger.”
Marie Brennan
Pixels and Portfolios “The one who gets wisdom
May 6, 1985 loves life; the one who
cherishes understanding will
Thirty-four years ago, the dawn of “electronic investing” soon prosper.”
was upon us. Nerdy enthusiasts could suddenly compete Proverbs 19:8
with market professionals. Well, sort of. You could get
stock quotes via an FM radio device for about $300
($710 today) or pay CompuServe, owned by H&R Block,
10 cents per quote during market hours. Dow Jones let
you access Barron’s and the Wall Street Journal for $2.40 FINAL THOUGHT
a minute, while something called the Radio Exchange
($279, or $660 today) dropped limited financial data
directly into your Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet. The only thing
you absolutely couldn’t do in 1985 was trade digitally.
To buy or sell, you had to pick up the phone—and pay
a broker. Still, the speed of it all seemed intoxicating.
“Like buying a Porsche that seduces you to drive too fast,
having instant access to market information can tempt
you to trade stocks too quickly.” You were warned.
“Money’s merits are
measured by its use,
SOURCES: OTHELLO, BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE; ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE, not amount.”
BY BARBARA KINGSOLVER; CRYPTONOMICON, BY NEAL STEPHENSON; THE RAPE
OF THE LOCK, BY ALEXANDER POPE; MEDITATIONS, BY MARCUS AURELIUS; —Malcolm Forbes
LITERARY THEORY: AN INTRODUCTION, BY TERRY EAGLETON; WHERE IS SCIENCE
GOING?, BY MAX PLANCK; THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY, BY THOMAS HENRY
HUXLEY; THE TROPIC OF SERPENTS, BY MARIE BRENNAN.