April 19, 2018 • 14 mins
Will and Mango celebrate our favorite number crunchers, from Mick Jagger's strange pre-concert ritual to the homeless accountant who got us fascinated with the number 70 million.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what, mango, what's that? Well, So, I don't think
we've talked about Bennett Surf on this show before, but
you know who Surf is, right, Yeah, he's the co
founder of Random House. He's kind of a legend and
there are so many great stories about him. But one
of my favorites has to do with a conversation and
a bet that he had with Dr Seuss. So they
were having this argument about how many unique words you
needed to tell a really good story, and so Surf
(00:21):
made this bet with Dr SEUs for fifty bucks that
he couldn't write a book with fifty words or less. So,
of course Dr SEUs proved him wrong, and he wrote green,
eggs and ham. Yeah, so I've got a bet. I
knew that story. But um, one thing I learned when
we were doing our Doctor SEUs episode was that forty
nine of those words that he used actually were only
one syllable long, like fox and bode and eggs and could.
(00:45):
But the only word he used that was longer than
one syllable was the word anywhere. But but I'm curious
what did Dr Seuss do with all that cash? Apparently nothing,
because I don't think Surf ever paid him, just kind
of figured, you know, the royalties on doctors, who's his
best selling book, We're probably winnings enough. And he's got
a good point on that one. I'm sure he made
(01:05):
a ton of money from those books. But there was
one thing I didn't realize. Surf actually went to school
for accounting. And so today's Nine Things is all about
our favorite accountants. And if it wasn't for an accountant,
we wouldn't have green Eggs in ham So let's dive in. Hey,
(01:40):
their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will
Pearson and is always I'm joined by my good friend
man guest Ticketer and sitting behind the soundproof glass just
organizing his collection of vintage Turbo tax cd ROMs. Have
you ever seen that many ms? Certainly within the last
fifteen twenty years, I haven't seen that many CD ROMs
in one place. But that's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil.
(02:03):
So mego, we're doing a show today all about account
its Huh. Yeah. I mean you could say it's an
honor of tax season finally being over. But the real
reason I thought we do a show on this is
because I wanted to dedicate a show to our friend
and accountant Lisa Vant, who's uh, I know, your longtime
family friend. Yes, she actually advised Mental Flaws in the
early days, helped you out so many times when you
(02:23):
were waiting tables and I was teaching on the side
and everything we were trying to do to get Mental
Flaws started. And I'll never forget the first time we
sat down with tax forms and things like that, and
we both looked at each other like how does this?
And this many years later, we still look at each
other like how does this work? But it's baffling. That's right,
(02:43):
That's right. Lisa has been there for so many times.
So you know we've we've already talked about our favorite
account and now but let's talk about some ridiculous accounting
and account a story. So where do you want to
start today? So I want to talk about the Oakland days.
And you know, I'm not a huge baseball fan, but
I I've read this story on now I know that
I love and it's about their accounting department. So in
(03:06):
the counting team at the A's was confused because they
had this million dollars surplus, like they were checking their
books and re checking their numbers, and they were kind
of freaking out because they couldn't figure out why they
had an extra million dollars around. And it turns out
that it was because of Ricky Henderson. So apparently before
the season, he'd gotten a contract for twelve million dollars
(03:27):
with a million dollars to be paid up front. So
he framed his million dollar check and actually never deposited. No,
Apparently he wanted it up on the wall so he
could see it every day and it would make them happy.
But when the accounts finally figured it out, they asked
him to make a copy of that check and deposit
the million dollar check, which I guess he eventually agreed to.
(03:48):
I mean, I love that he had to be convinced
to deposit a million dollars. I think that's a pretty
good son. You have a little more money than you
really need. Well, here's the person who actually kind of
looks like an account but I never realized was trained
to be on And that's comedian Bob Newhart. Did you
know this? According to an interview, he said, I didn't
say to myself, oh, here's a great void to fill.
I'll be a balding X accountant who specializes in low
(04:10):
key humor. That's just simply what I was, so it
was natural for me to be that way. I should
really love Bob Newhart and I can kind of see
him being a lovable accountant. Well, apparently he wasn't very
good at it. I'm sure he was lovable, but not
good at the craft. And he said they're always seemed
to be shortages in the accounts he was working on,
and he even would chip in from his own pocket
(04:31):
just to balance the books. And his philosophy was apparently
close enough is good enough. Yeah, I don't think that's
a motto at many accounting schools. So so, speaking of
accountants who actually chipped in their own money, have you
ever heard of Bert Padell? No, so, I've never heard
him in either, but apparently he's name checked in a
lot of rap albums. He's mentioned like by Biggie and
(04:51):
Run d m C and To Leave Quilly. And actually
only found out about him through this article in New
York mag Apparently, when Sean Puffy Combs was just starting
out and without a job, he made an introduction to
Clive Davis for him. You know Clive Davis is that
legendary music producer, and uh he's also a little like
Bob Newir and that he fronted Puffy some money so
that he could stay in his new house as he
(05:12):
was figuring out his business. But you know, the more
I read about him, Padel seemed like more and more
of an amazing person. So I'm just gonna give you
some highlights. He actually started out as a bat boy
for the Yankees, and uh, as a kid, he was
this promising baseball player. In fact, he said he was
DiMaggio's bat boy teammate and then his business manager after
an injury stalled his career. But uh, he had this
(05:33):
amazing reputation just for being super honest and uh he
was someone who could get you out of gems and
really help you focus your business. So over the years
he moved from like DiMaggio to helping people like Pink,
Floyd jeth Or Tull, a bunch of other bands, and
uh and then when Russell Simmons started his business, he
actually recruited Padel to work with him. So they're all
these stories of the years of like Padel helping artists
(05:54):
get their money back, and uh, you know, he actually
Um turned his office into an early we work for
young hip hop artists and entrepreneurs like he He'd let
them work there for free and use his conference rooms
and whatever. But my favorite part is that one of
the artists he worked with said that for twenty eight years,
Bert would call him up early on his birthday and
sing him Happy Birthday. And he did this for everyone
(06:16):
he loved and believed in. Wow, that's pretty sweet. Yeah.
According to this book The Um, the History of Business
of Hip Hop, as people were exploiting these young artists,
he was like the person who everyone trusted, and he's
known as the guy who helped artists get their money right.
You know, one thing I hadn't thought about in a
while was that even villains need accountants, which is what
makes the Accountant story and that that's the book written
(06:38):
by Pablo Escobar's brother and chief accountant, Roberto, so interesting.
So the book is filled with all sorts of crazy details,
you know, from the ingenious methods the cartel used to
move that much cocaine across international lines. I was reading
about this. They used to fill airplane tires with coke,
then they'd figure out how to liquefy it. So it
was coming across and bottles of cooking oil and hayne
(07:00):
and whatever else. And you know, then they figured out
how to embed it in plastic I mean, the science
just nuts. But and I know, back in our Rats
episode we talked about how Escobar spent I think it
was like a month on rubber bands, just want all
that cash together. And you know, the Rats used to
eat like ten per cent of the profits, just nibbling
(07:20):
away at the cash in these warehouses. But there were
a few other things that I didn't know about. The
accounting team. So Escobar's brother managed an accounting team of
ten people to oversee this cash, and you kind of
forget that at the height of his reign, Escobar controlled
eighty percent of the cocaine market. Forbes actually had him
listed as the seventh richest person in the world, with
(07:40):
a personal fortune of over twenty five billion dollars. But
all that money became such a problem that they started
filling warehouses with the cash, than ranch buildings, than buried plots,
and actually started storing in the walls of anybody they knew,
And eventually they just started buying submarines and planes in
all cash d because they knew they could use them
(08:01):
and you know, in the fleets to ship their product.
It's just crazy. That's insanity. And it's almost more amazing
that there were only ten people doing all this accounting,
you know, for that much money. It's kind of crazy. Anyway,
here's a quick one that's the opposite of Escobars badass accountant.
Did you know that Kenny g was also an accountant?
So you know, we both like music. I don't think
(08:23):
either of us or Kenny g aficionados or Kenneth Bruce
gorelick aficionados if you go call him by his full name,
but I am kind of fascinated by him. Apparently he
was five Beta Kappa in school and graduated Magna come
Loud from University of Washington in accounting, and you know,
those skills helped him manage his money as he was
just starting out and then pick a really good financial
(08:43):
manager when he had more money coming in. But one
of the things I like about him is that he
actually holds the record for holding a note the longest
on the saxophone, and he did it for forty five minutes. No,
that's not possible. Minutes. Yeah, so I didn't think so either.
I guess he uses this technique called circular breathing. Use
your cheeks as a bellows and then push out air
(09:04):
as you're breathing in through your nostrils. I I don't
know if you saw that amazing ten minute freestyle from
the Roots and see Terek Trotter. Uh yeah, he was
just like spitting lyrics NonStop for ten minutes, and apparently
he used circular breathing just to keep his voice at
the same pitch and not run out of breath as
he was talking. You know, I like that there are
all these would be accountants who ended up doing other
(09:25):
amazing things. You've got Robert Plant, Eddie Iszard. I mean,
they all dropped out, but it's a pretty fun list
to look at. I know, I love thinking about people
who are almost things like priests or chaplain's like uh
Michael Moore, John Green, Al Gore, Casanova. You know, I
don't know how Casanova didn't last Divinity school. It just
doesn't make any sense that actually there was there was
(09:46):
one other on the account in front. Mick Jagger was
supposed to be an account and he's supposedly great at math.
He was enrolled at the you know, very prestigious London
School of Economics and then dropped out a year or
two into it just to pursue music. I guess he
had pretty good reason to do that. It's pretty fascinating
to read about. Yeah, I mean I've actually heard that
he's super frugal. Yeah, there's this story I think it
(10:09):
was in two and this was in Germany, and he
made this massive crowd wait like half an hour because
he wanted to count receipts and make sure that they
all matched up with the money that he was making
that night. Apparently he'd been stiffed on tour before. And
also there's this story that he used to negotiate really
really low deals on everything from house whereas the escorts,
(10:29):
and as one newspaper put it, he doesn't like paying,
but he especially doesn't like being overcharged. Well, we've got
two more account stories for you, but first a quick break.
(10:52):
Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're discussing the
tales of accounting and accounts. So, ango, what's your last
fact of the day. Well, I found this amazing story
of this mathematician who's named Yatang Jiong. I think he
also goes by Tom But he grew up during the
Cultural Revolution in China when academics were really suppressed and
and he had to work fields and and then he
(11:12):
um eventually goes to school for math and gets a PhD.
But for some reason, he's this mild mannered guy who
can't get a job. Like he works at a subway
as a sandwich artist. He uh, he delivers Chinese food.
He actually has to sleep in his car along the way.
He starts using his skills as an accountant to make
a little bit more money, and finally he works his
way up to this very low level teaching job at
(11:33):
the University of New Hampshire where he teaches intro to calculus.
And in fact, he's like so low level that his
bio on the school's website doesn't have a profile pick
of him like the rest of the professors there. But
the reason I think he's fascinating and you will too,
I'm sure, is that he quietly, at the age of
fifty seven or something so submits his math paper that
just blows the math world away. So the math gets
(11:56):
ahead of me here. But basically, there was this ancient
theory that Dave back to Greece that they're an infinite
number of prime numbers that are separated by two. So
if you think about numbers like three and five or
forty one and forty three one like along the number
lined ideas that you can find an infinite number of these.
But Jan proved that there are actually an infinite number
(12:17):
of prime numbers separated by seventy million. I know, I
I don't know why seventy million, but he's gonna ask
why seventy millions and no idea. But he uses something
called um bounded Gaffs conjecture, and according to Boston dot Com,
it's the first time anyone proved that they're an infinite
number of primes separated by an actual number. So this
(12:38):
just up ends the math world, right, Like he wins
at MacArthur Genius Prize and all this other stuff. But
the thing that really blows me away is that he
never actually uses a computer to do any of this.
He just thinks the stuff up and works it out
with a pencil and paper, And the only time he
used a computer in this entire process was to type
up the paper to submit it. And he also forgets
(12:59):
to him his hair and his wife has to remind
him before he takes photos. I just I just love him.
He's extra little fact there. Although I probably would have
predicted that anybody that was able to figure that out
about the seventy million gap might not comb their hair.
I don't know why I say that, but I just did.
All right, Well, I'm gonna end this with a really
simple story that's from accounting history, and it's a guy
(13:22):
named Luca Paccioli. And there are records of accountants before Luca.
You know, the Mesopotamians kept records of taxes on sheep,
and supposedly they invented the idea of receipts. But Luca
is interesting because he was a friar in medieval Italy
and he's the person who convinced society to use ledgers.
So apparently he said that a person shouldn't go to
sleep at night until their debits and their credits are equal,
(13:44):
so basically keeping a balanced book. And he's remembered as
the father of accounting. But just the fact that our
pal Lisa has balanced our books and allowed us to
go to sleep so soundly every night, or you know,
at least on the nights that we weren't pulling on
that seems like reason enough to include it. Yeah, I
think instead of choosing a winner this week, let's just
leave it at that. That sounds good to me. Well,
(14:06):
thank you guys so much for listening. We'll be back
with a full length episode tomorrow. H
Guess what, mango, what's that? Well, So, I don't think
we've talked about Bennett Surf on this show before, but
you know who Surf is, right, Yeah, he's the co
founder of Random House. He's kind of a legend and
there are so many great stories about him. But one
of my favorites has to do with a conversation and
a bet that he had with Dr Seuss. So they
were having this argument about how many unique words you
needed to tell a really good story, and so Surf
(00:21):
made this bet with Dr SEUs for fifty bucks that
he couldn't write a book with fifty words or less. So,
of course Dr SEUs proved him wrong, and he wrote green,
eggs and ham. Yeah, so I've got a bet. I
knew that story. But um, one thing I learned when
we were doing our Doctor SEUs episode was that forty
nine of those words that he used actually were only
one syllable long, like fox and bode and eggs and could.
(00:45):
But the only word he used that was longer than
one syllable was the word anywhere. But but I'm curious
what did Dr Seuss do with all that cash? Apparently nothing,
because I don't think Surf ever paid him, just kind
of figured, you know, the royalties on doctors, who's his
best selling book, We're probably winnings enough. And he's got
a good point on that one. I'm sure he made
(01:05):
a ton of money from those books. But there was
one thing I didn't realize. Surf actually went to school
for accounting. And so today's Nine Things is all about
our favorite accountants. And if it wasn't for an accountant,
we wouldn't have green Eggs in ham So let's dive in. Hey,
(01:40):
their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will
Pearson and is always I'm joined by my good friend
man guest Ticketer and sitting behind the soundproof glass just
organizing his collection of vintage Turbo tax cd ROMs. Have
you ever seen that many ms? Certainly within the last
fifteen twenty years, I haven't seen that many CD ROMs
in one place. But that's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil.
(02:03):
So mego, we're doing a show today all about account
its Huh. Yeah. I mean you could say it's an
honor of tax season finally being over. But the real
reason I thought we do a show on this is
because I wanted to dedicate a show to our friend
and accountant Lisa Vant, who's uh, I know, your longtime
family friend. Yes, she actually advised Mental Flaws in the
early days, helped you out so many times when you
(02:23):
were waiting tables and I was teaching on the side
and everything we were trying to do to get Mental
Flaws started. And I'll never forget the first time we
sat down with tax forms and things like that, and
we both looked at each other like how does this?
And this many years later, we still look at each
other like how does this work? But it's baffling. That's right,
(02:43):
That's right. Lisa has been there for so many times.
So you know we've we've already talked about our favorite
account and now but let's talk about some ridiculous accounting
and account a story. So where do you want to
start today? So I want to talk about the Oakland days.
And you know, I'm not a huge baseball fan, but
I I've read this story on now I know that
I love and it's about their accounting department. So in
(03:06):
the counting team at the A's was confused because they
had this million dollars surplus, like they were checking their
books and re checking their numbers, and they were kind
of freaking out because they couldn't figure out why they
had an extra million dollars around. And it turns out
that it was because of Ricky Henderson. So apparently before
the season, he'd gotten a contract for twelve million dollars
(03:27):
with a million dollars to be paid up front. So
he framed his million dollar check and actually never deposited. No,
Apparently he wanted it up on the wall so he
could see it every day and it would make them happy.
But when the accounts finally figured it out, they asked
him to make a copy of that check and deposit
the million dollar check, which I guess he eventually agreed to.
(03:48):
I mean, I love that he had to be convinced
to deposit a million dollars. I think that's a pretty
good son. You have a little more money than you
really need. Well, here's the person who actually kind of
looks like an account but I never realized was trained
to be on And that's comedian Bob Newhart. Did you
know this? According to an interview, he said, I didn't
say to myself, oh, here's a great void to fill.
I'll be a balding X accountant who specializes in low
(04:10):
key humor. That's just simply what I was, so it
was natural for me to be that way. I should
really love Bob Newhart and I can kind of see
him being a lovable accountant. Well, apparently he wasn't very
good at it. I'm sure he was lovable, but not
good at the craft. And he said they're always seemed
to be shortages in the accounts he was working on,
and he even would chip in from his own pocket
(04:31):
just to balance the books. And his philosophy was apparently
close enough is good enough. Yeah, I don't think that's
a motto at many accounting schools. So so, speaking of
accountants who actually chipped in their own money, have you
ever heard of Bert Padell? No, so, I've never heard
him in either, but apparently he's name checked in a
lot of rap albums. He's mentioned like by Biggie and
(04:51):
Run d m C and To Leave Quilly. And actually
only found out about him through this article in New
York mag Apparently, when Sean Puffy Combs was just starting
out and without a job, he made an introduction to
Clive Davis for him. You know Clive Davis is that
legendary music producer, and uh he's also a little like
Bob Newir and that he fronted Puffy some money so
that he could stay in his new house as he
(05:12):
was figuring out his business. But you know, the more
I read about him, Padel seemed like more and more
of an amazing person. So I'm just gonna give you
some highlights. He actually started out as a bat boy
for the Yankees, and uh, as a kid, he was
this promising baseball player. In fact, he said he was
DiMaggio's bat boy teammate and then his business manager after
an injury stalled his career. But uh, he had this
(05:33):
amazing reputation just for being super honest and uh he
was someone who could get you out of gems and
really help you focus your business. So over the years
he moved from like DiMaggio to helping people like Pink,
Floyd jeth Or Tull, a bunch of other bands, and
uh and then when Russell Simmons started his business, he
actually recruited Padel to work with him. So they're all
these stories of the years of like Padel helping artists
(05:54):
get their money back, and uh, you know, he actually
Um turned his office into an early we work for
young hip hop artists and entrepreneurs like he He'd let
them work there for free and use his conference rooms
and whatever. But my favorite part is that one of
the artists he worked with said that for twenty eight years,
Bert would call him up early on his birthday and
sing him Happy Birthday. And he did this for everyone
(06:16):
he loved and believed in. Wow, that's pretty sweet. Yeah.
According to this book The Um, the History of Business
of Hip Hop, as people were exploiting these young artists,
he was like the person who everyone trusted, and he's
known as the guy who helped artists get their money right.
You know, one thing I hadn't thought about in a
while was that even villains need accountants, which is what
makes the Accountant story and that that's the book written
(06:38):
by Pablo Escobar's brother and chief accountant, Roberto, so interesting.
So the book is filled with all sorts of crazy details,
you know, from the ingenious methods the cartel used to
move that much cocaine across international lines. I was reading
about this. They used to fill airplane tires with coke,
then they'd figure out how to liquefy it. So it
was coming across and bottles of cooking oil and hayne
(07:00):
and whatever else. And you know, then they figured out
how to embed it in plastic I mean, the science
just nuts. But and I know, back in our Rats
episode we talked about how Escobar spent I think it
was like a month on rubber bands, just want all
that cash together. And you know, the Rats used to
eat like ten per cent of the profits, just nibbling
(07:20):
away at the cash in these warehouses. But there were
a few other things that I didn't know about. The
accounting team. So Escobar's brother managed an accounting team of
ten people to oversee this cash, and you kind of
forget that at the height of his reign, Escobar controlled
eighty percent of the cocaine market. Forbes actually had him
listed as the seventh richest person in the world, with
(07:40):
a personal fortune of over twenty five billion dollars. But
all that money became such a problem that they started
filling warehouses with the cash, than ranch buildings, than buried plots,
and actually started storing in the walls of anybody they knew,
And eventually they just started buying submarines and planes in
all cash d because they knew they could use them
(08:01):
and you know, in the fleets to ship their product.
It's just crazy. That's insanity. And it's almost more amazing
that there were only ten people doing all this accounting,
you know, for that much money. It's kind of crazy. Anyway,
here's a quick one that's the opposite of Escobars badass accountant.
Did you know that Kenny g was also an accountant?
So you know, we both like music. I don't think
(08:23):
either of us or Kenny g aficionados or Kenneth Bruce
gorelick aficionados if you go call him by his full name,
but I am kind of fascinated by him. Apparently he
was five Beta Kappa in school and graduated Magna come
Loud from University of Washington in accounting, and you know,
those skills helped him manage his money as he was
just starting out and then pick a really good financial
(08:43):
manager when he had more money coming in. But one
of the things I like about him is that he
actually holds the record for holding a note the longest
on the saxophone, and he did it for forty five minutes. No,
that's not possible. Minutes. Yeah, so I didn't think so either.
I guess he uses this technique called circular breathing. Use
your cheeks as a bellows and then push out air
(09:04):
as you're breathing in through your nostrils. I I don't
know if you saw that amazing ten minute freestyle from
the Roots and see Terek Trotter. Uh yeah, he was
just like spitting lyrics NonStop for ten minutes, and apparently
he used circular breathing just to keep his voice at
the same pitch and not run out of breath as
he was talking. You know, I like that there are
all these would be accountants who ended up doing other
(09:25):
amazing things. You've got Robert Plant, Eddie Iszard. I mean,
they all dropped out, but it's a pretty fun list
to look at. I know, I love thinking about people
who are almost things like priests or chaplain's like uh
Michael Moore, John Green, Al Gore, Casanova. You know, I
don't know how Casanova didn't last Divinity school. It just
doesn't make any sense that actually there was there was
(09:46):
one other on the account in front. Mick Jagger was
supposed to be an account and he's supposedly great at math.
He was enrolled at the you know, very prestigious London
School of Economics and then dropped out a year or
two into it just to pursue music. I guess he
had pretty good reason to do that. It's pretty fascinating
to read about. Yeah, I mean I've actually heard that
he's super frugal. Yeah, there's this story I think it
(10:09):
was in two and this was in Germany, and he
made this massive crowd wait like half an hour because
he wanted to count receipts and make sure that they
all matched up with the money that he was making
that night. Apparently he'd been stiffed on tour before. And
also there's this story that he used to negotiate really
really low deals on everything from house whereas the escorts,
(10:29):
and as one newspaper put it, he doesn't like paying,
but he especially doesn't like being overcharged. Well, we've got
two more account stories for you, but first a quick break.
(10:52):
Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're discussing the
tales of accounting and accounts. So, ango, what's your last
fact of the day. Well, I found this amazing story
of this mathematician who's named Yatang Jiong. I think he
also goes by Tom But he grew up during the
Cultural Revolution in China when academics were really suppressed and
and he had to work fields and and then he
(11:12):
um eventually goes to school for math and gets a PhD.
But for some reason, he's this mild mannered guy who
can't get a job. Like he works at a subway
as a sandwich artist. He uh, he delivers Chinese food.
He actually has to sleep in his car along the way.
He starts using his skills as an accountant to make
a little bit more money, and finally he works his
way up to this very low level teaching job at
(11:33):
the University of New Hampshire where he teaches intro to calculus.
And in fact, he's like so low level that his
bio on the school's website doesn't have a profile pick
of him like the rest of the professors there. But
the reason I think he's fascinating and you will too,
I'm sure, is that he quietly, at the age of
fifty seven or something so submits his math paper that
just blows the math world away. So the math gets
(11:56):
ahead of me here. But basically, there was this ancient
theory that Dave back to Greece that they're an infinite
number of prime numbers that are separated by two. So
if you think about numbers like three and five or
forty one and forty three one like along the number
lined ideas that you can find an infinite number of these.
But Jan proved that there are actually an infinite number
(12:17):
of prime numbers separated by seventy million. I know, I
I don't know why seventy million, but he's gonna ask
why seventy millions and no idea. But he uses something
called um bounded Gaffs conjecture, and according to Boston dot Com,
it's the first time anyone proved that they're an infinite
number of primes separated by an actual number. So this
(12:38):
just up ends the math world, right, Like he wins
at MacArthur Genius Prize and all this other stuff. But
the thing that really blows me away is that he
never actually uses a computer to do any of this.
He just thinks the stuff up and works it out
with a pencil and paper, And the only time he
used a computer in this entire process was to type
up the paper to submit it. And he also forgets
(12:59):
to him his hair and his wife has to remind
him before he takes photos. I just I just love him.
He's extra little fact there. Although I probably would have
predicted that anybody that was able to figure that out
about the seventy million gap might not comb their hair.
I don't know why I say that, but I just did.
All right, Well, I'm gonna end this with a really
simple story that's from accounting history, and it's a guy
(13:22):
named Luca Paccioli. And there are records of accountants before Luca.
You know, the Mesopotamians kept records of taxes on sheep,
and supposedly they invented the idea of receipts. But Luca
is interesting because he was a friar in medieval Italy
and he's the person who convinced society to use ledgers.
So apparently he said that a person shouldn't go to
sleep at night until their debits and their credits are equal,
(13:44):
so basically keeping a balanced book. And he's remembered as
the father of accounting. But just the fact that our
pal Lisa has balanced our books and allowed us to
go to sleep so soundly every night, or you know,
at least on the nights that we weren't pulling on
that seems like reason enough to include it. Yeah, I
think instead of choosing a winner this week, let's just
leave it at that. That sounds good to me. Well,
(14:06):
thank you guys so much for listening. We'll be back
with a full length episode tomorrow. H
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
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