The other day, I traded a couple of stock options on margin for the first time. I did it as an experiment to see how it worked. I borrowed money from my broker to buy a couple of Call Options and then sold them an hour later at a modest profit. I only made $22.95 net on the transaction but, here's the thing, I did it with nothing. In a sense, I conjured $22.95 out of thin air. Neat, huh?
While grading a recent test in my Astronomy class, I had took a moment to appreciate how cool it was that I was grading student responses to my question "What did Alan Guth mean when he said 'The Universe is the ultimate free lunch?' " I mean, seriously, how cool is it that I get to teach about this stuff? (And, bonus, most of the student responses were quasi-coherent!). The answer to the question is that the conserved quantities of the universe (energy, momentum, charge, etc.) all seem to add up to a grand total of... zero. All the energy needed to create mass seems to be compensated for by the creation of negative gravitational potential energy between the masses. That's really profound, right?
When you meet someone for the first time, there are no bonds of relationship initially. No debts, credits, obligations, past practices, expectations, mutual support, love, what have you. Over time, through conversation and shared experience, the two of you may actually create some of the most valuable items in your entire life: a deep friendship or a loving relationship. It's really quite amazing when you think of how impactful that intangible relationship can be!
 |
| AI generated art based on my prompts for this post |
No comments:
Post a Comment