The lengthy multiplication of the מכות in Egypt and at ים סוף in the Haggada. Consider that given the fact that the word of מכה itself in kabbalistic writing is often used in terms of multiplication.
ד' בנים -- Was thinking to say that the order of the 4 sons is actually by order of greatest to lowest, the רשע then being second best to that of the חכם. The reason being that in terms of development a man with passion to question -- even if misdirected -- is still significantly greater than a man who has very little drive to question (תם) or even worse a man who has no drive to question at all (שאינו יודע לשאול). Mediocrity and "living life on auto-pilot" being then the greatest evils of all when seen from the perspective of Pesach self-growth and development.
Monday, April 6, 2015
Monday, March 2, 2015
Opportunity Costs of Today
(Have to be terse. No time)
Learning some fundamentals of Finance of late. One of the concepts I found to be really insightful. It goes like this:
If you purchased a home 20 years ago for $100,000 and today it's worth say $1,000,0000 - How much should you rent it out for? One school of thought is to compare it against whatever rate of interest you have readily accessible to yourself. The thought goes that if I can get a 5% interest rate today on my money, then in theory I could sell my 1 million dollar home and deposit the cash while getting $50,000 interest. That being the case I have no reason to rent the house out unless I atleast get that amount. You then are receiving a 5% return on your investment.
Maybe it's obvious to others, but the thing that really struck me was this -- there's no relevance to what your purchase price was of the home in regards to the present calculation of managing your house. You could have looked at the house as a running investment -- from the date of purchase to the current day. in which case you've had a great run -- 10X your initial investment plus the future cash flow of rent, whatever amount you decide to rent out for.
But you don't. Why? Because today you're making a separate choice of investing $1,000,000, not $100K. The question is not anymore what to do with a house that i bought for $100K, it's what to do with $1 Million, and it's on that number alone that you benchmark your success or failure.
And so, the insight for me -- no matter what a man has made of himself; no matter what great talmid chacham he has become, what institutions he's founded, what families he's grown -- vis-a-vis the future outlook of the rest of his life -- it's entirely irrelevant. That would be all fine and dandy if he dies today. Then you could take a look back and benchmark where he started and where he ended. But so long as he's alive -- today, tomorrow and the next -- the only relevant issue is how are you optimizing the resources and achievements you have in your life - today! Because you're not gauging what has Daniel Mokhtar become since the day he was born. You're gauging what has the Daniel Mokhtar of the past done with himself for that extra day he was given existence today - March 2, 2015.
Is there any positive ROI for today alone?
Here's to hoping.
Learning some fundamentals of Finance of late. One of the concepts I found to be really insightful. It goes like this:
If you purchased a home 20 years ago for $100,000 and today it's worth say $1,000,0000 - How much should you rent it out for? One school of thought is to compare it against whatever rate of interest you have readily accessible to yourself. The thought goes that if I can get a 5% interest rate today on my money, then in theory I could sell my 1 million dollar home and deposit the cash while getting $50,000 interest. That being the case I have no reason to rent the house out unless I atleast get that amount. You then are receiving a 5% return on your investment.
Maybe it's obvious to others, but the thing that really struck me was this -- there's no relevance to what your purchase price was of the home in regards to the present calculation of managing your house. You could have looked at the house as a running investment -- from the date of purchase to the current day. in which case you've had a great run -- 10X your initial investment plus the future cash flow of rent, whatever amount you decide to rent out for.
But you don't. Why? Because today you're making a separate choice of investing $1,000,000, not $100K. The question is not anymore what to do with a house that i bought for $100K, it's what to do with $1 Million, and it's on that number alone that you benchmark your success or failure.
And so, the insight for me -- no matter what a man has made of himself; no matter what great talmid chacham he has become, what institutions he's founded, what families he's grown -- vis-a-vis the future outlook of the rest of his life -- it's entirely irrelevant. That would be all fine and dandy if he dies today. Then you could take a look back and benchmark where he started and where he ended. But so long as he's alive -- today, tomorrow and the next -- the only relevant issue is how are you optimizing the resources and achievements you have in your life - today! Because you're not gauging what has Daniel Mokhtar become since the day he was born. You're gauging what has the Daniel Mokhtar of the past done with himself for that extra day he was given existence today - March 2, 2015.
Is there any positive ROI for today alone?
Here's to hoping.
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Etymology - אף על פי
Consider the phrase אף על פי meaning literally "nose on my mouth" and being used ubiquitously as "even though" as in the sense even though you would have thought X to be the decisive factor, in fact it is Y. How does even though derive from nose on my mouth?
Consider the use of the possesive form -- "my mouth" (פי) -- as opposed to the plain word of "a nose" אף. Consider also the defining of the nose in relation to the mouth and not the other way around -- פי מתחת אף.
Those points mentioned I think the answer is thus: the phrase of אף על פי having the meaning of even though built into the very words themselves: the nose, naturally being the greater of the two organs by virtue of it's being elevated above the mouth, is nonetheless subordinate/subservient to פי. Even though you would have thought the nose should be the primary -- אף על פי כן -- primary focus is in fact given to the פה.
והבן היטב.
Consider the use of the possesive form -- "my mouth" (פי) -- as opposed to the plain word of "a nose" אף. Consider also the defining of the nose in relation to the mouth and not the other way around -- פי מתחת אף.
Those points mentioned I think the answer is thus: the phrase of אף על פי having the meaning of even though built into the very words themselves: the nose, naturally being the greater of the two organs by virtue of it's being elevated above the mouth, is nonetheless subordinate/subservient to פי. Even though you would have thought the nose should be the primary -- אף על פי כן -- primary focus is in fact given to the פה.
והבן היטב.
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