Popular Finance Blog

Theodore Roosevelt famously stated that "it is not the critic who counts", and while his speech was delivered in the context of the behavior and role of citizens in a republic it has been repeated widely in divers contexts. I present it here, as a way of reminding us all and primarily myself, that criticism is not the highest form of societal contribution. Rather, its merit is only measured by the value it brings to those who hear it. For a finance blog, the value of any critique could be directly measured in the value it brings to readers. And yet, why not have a little fun along the way with reviews, interpretations and considerations of popular representations of financial situations! Welcome to the arena! The larger quote: It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood

Infamously, the aired pilot of the Big Bang Theory was a heavily revised version of a previous attempt almost a year earlier. Even so, it's interesting to note that not all mistakes were fixed in this reworked version. This highlights the magic of story: character flaws and growth make us love the characters more as we identify with their charisma and mistakes both. Amongst the many other flaws that we'll come to love over the 12 seasons of BBT, in this first episode we are introduced to the cadre of characters that make up the main cast - as well as their financial ineptitude. Somewhat ironically, a pair of Girl Scouts are shown outwitting Sheldon and Leonard in the pursuit of their financial endeavors. Yet, through all the financial mistakes in this episode and in future episodes, we the audience see our own mistakes anew. Whereby, through the process of seeing our favorite characters recover, we process our mistakes and forgive ourselves in order to move forward once more. W