Who said anything about APM only being used by laptops?
Posted Apr 6, 2011 16:30 UTC (Wed) by
giraffedata (subscriber, #1954)
In reply to:
Who said anything about APM only being used by laptops? by nye
Parent article:
Powering down APM
Not wanting to do a task because it takes time is part of the concept of time having value that I'm talking about. But more basically, it's the fact that a person generally prefers to have something now than to have it later. It's the reason you have to pay interest on a loan. It's the concept behind the business adage, "expense delayed is expense reduced." I think it's an unsettled question among economists exactly what the psychological basis for that is, but I know it involves the limited lifespan of a person, uncertainty which grows the further into the future you look, and the fact that entropy increases with time.
There are myriad ways you can bring this abstract concept into focus in making a business decision by looking at interest you would pay on a loan or income you would make on an investment in pay now vs pay later scenarios, and I tried to do that by describing how my company would end up wealthier by investing money in something other than LCD monitors and continuing to pay, in the future, for the extra electricity for the CRTs. (With all other factors ignored, of course). Even though the total dollar electricity savings exceed the purchase price of the LCD.
But the basic concept is well known to beginning economics and accounting students as "present value." $10 paid a year from now is worth less than $10 paid now. (And there is math to tell you how much less).
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