Monthly Archives: April 2004

The story goes –

A few years ago, I was chatting with a stranger in a bar. When I told him I was an economist, he said, “Ah. So… what are the Two Things about economics?”

“Huh?” I cleverly replied.

“You know, the Two Things. For every subject, there are really only two things you really need to know. Everything else is the application of those two things, or just not important.”

“Oh,” I said. “Okay, here are the Two Things about economics. One: Incentives matter. Two: There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

For computers I’d say:

1. Reboot if it acts up.
2. Backup your files.

From http://www.kegz.net/blog/eggz/ who got it from here.

To save readers some money I’ll include two bonus items:

3. Don’t buy the best unless you have cash to burn (or really intense games to play / processes to run). In another 12-18 months that machine will be 25%-%50 less or the new model will be 50% faster.
4. Make sure it’s got a good return policy (unless you know it’s exactly what you want).

What’s your two things?