This is your brain on... Finance

I am twelve pages into my "Finance for Executives" book and my brain is already, well... fried. Granted, I am not helped by the fact that I know absolutely nothing about finance or its snazzy lingo, but come on: there's got to be an easier way to explain this stuff. It really seems to me that so far, all I'm getting out of it is learning an incredibly convoluted, barely English way to describe concepts that are just common sense.

Like this, for example: "A business proposal... will create value only if the present value of the future stream of net cash benefits the proposal is expected to generate exceeds the initial cash outlay required to carry out the proposal."

Say it with me, folks... groan.....

I am acutely aware of the irony inherent in a lawyer complaining about unnecessarily long and complex definitions designed to ensure that knowledge and power (and money) remain in the hands of the select few, trust me. That, of course, is not going to keep me from complaining.

All of this bodes well for the start of classes, which is in a little over a week. I must admit, there's a little (rather annoying) voice inside my head wondering if I've made some kind of horrible mistake. It's a good thing all of my classmates seem like nice people, and quite fond of raucous social gatherings. I think we're going to need those...