Whining about _The Metropolitan Revolution_

[walkitout]

In an effort to stop myself from further commentary on Amazon/Hachette, I'm reading again. I'll probably add to this post. I got the book at the library, because the perpetrators work for Brookings, and they always start out reasonable and wind up somewhere really weird. And along the way, they make strange errors. Here's one:

"Steven Johnson points to fourteenth-century Italian market cities as examples of networked economies: these were the places from which emerged double-entry bookkeeping -- the notion of recording each transaction as a debit or [sic] a credit, which was one of financial accounting's biggest innovations."

I know, picking on someone who said "or" when "and" is meant is one of those annoying stickler things, and if I were confident that every reader would know that "and" was meant, I wouldn't say a goddamn thing. Everyone knows how to understand a Bush when it says "nuke-you-lar" and everyone knows that you can get books at the "liberry" if you "aks" nicely. Alas, I lack that confidence.

This complaint is in no way salient to the value of the book in general. I'm just whining. (No don't offer me cheese to go with that. I'm allergic to milk products, and soy cheese is meh.)

Comments

So ...

[(Anonymous)]

I have no problem admitting when I don't know something, and I'm always happy to learn. Honest question (not an argument): Why should this be "and" instead of "or"?

Re: So ...

[walkitout]

"Or" when used colloquially or as a technical term of logic can mean that only one of the two items is true. Double entry book keeping requires EVERY transaction to be BOTH a debit and a credit (a transaction entered as ONLY a debit xor ONLY a credit is incorrect by definition), thus one possible meaning of "Or" is incorrect. "And" is thus required for clarity and accuracy.

If you do not understand the meaning of "or", "colloquially" or "logic", a variety of online references or people you know may be able to help you.

If you do not understand (or believe) that double entry book keeping requires EVERY transaction to be both a debit and a credit, then the wikipedia entry on the topic can help you, or you could consult an accountant or someone else for explanation.

I sort of think you are trolling, because you have posted anonymously a question about something that you could readily have researched through wikipedia -- when I noted the error, I looked up the wikipedia entry for double entry book keeping to make sure I hadn't mis-remembered.