[GNC-dev] Report with Fiscal Year

[Borden]

>
> I wouldn't after 4 years of animal science (humans plus) plus a lot of home
> butchery. Look up the Dunning-Kruger Effect, two blokes got a nobel prize
> for saying you're full of shit. Your GP knows bugger all about lymph nodes
> anyway.
>
1) In what year  did David Dunning and/or Justin Kruger win the Nobel Prize? And in what category? There is no Nobel Prize in psychology. So they'd either win in medicine or economics, but I can't see their names in either roll since 1999 - when they published their paper describing the phenomenon. I could be wrong.

2) If you think I don't know what I'm talking about with respect to accounting, it appears that the institutions that awarded me my CFE pass, MBA and BComm in Accounting (with honours) made terrible mistakes.

3) The way to fight the Dunning-Kruger Effect is constantly challenging yourself to learn more: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/basics/dunning-kruger-effect#how-to-avoid-it . That means developing your critical thinking skills so you can reference from reliable sources and verify with people who know more than you. <https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/basics/dunning-kruger-effect#how-to-avoid-it>

4) Basic anatomy is a prerequisite for doctors in most parts of the world. I don't know what the state of medicine is in your part of the world where you have to butcher your own animals, but in mine, it's pretty good. The doctors I've had have been excellent in their professionalism and diagnoses.

You might want to take Dunning and Kruger's advice before flame baiting someone clearly more experienced and trained in this than you.

>
> If you know your stuff you should be able to explain it in simple terms but
> communication skills are often more of a challenge for people with a maths
> focus.
>
Yes, that's for teaching. But every discipline has its technical language so that it can agree on a simple word to communicate a larger idea.

Actually, some more education for you: my professional exams were about > 90% essay writing and < 10% calculations. Most of my daily work is reading rules and standards, interpreting facts, and giving opinions as to how the rules apply to facts: https://www.cpacanada.ca/en/become-a-cpa/why-become-a-cpa/the-cpa-certification-program/the-cpa-way

So, again, I'd encourage you to learn more about accounting before saying that we lack communication skills.

> Use plain English minimising technical terms to where they are
> needed but assume nobody knows what they mean. Credit/debit are a special
> case because the community *know* what they mean, and it's exactly opposite
> to the accounting definition, so I agree deposit/withdrawal are better
> terms.
>
They actually aren't the opposite definition. "Debit" and "credit" are relative like "left" and "right." The statements are written from the _bank's_ perspective, not the account holder's. If I enter a transaction with you, my debit is your credit, just like if I hand you something with my right hand, it arrives on your left-hand side.

Deposit/withdrawal are fine for simple bank accounts, but they scale poorly outside of bank accounts. If I want to "deposit" $100 into a shareholder loan or equity account, I make a credit in the books, not a debit. That means you need to reverse your terminology depending on the situation. How does that reduce confusion? It's even worse when you get to revenue and expense accounts. What does a "withdrawal" from revenue even supposed mean?

> I checked the docs and only found Fiscal Year referenced twice, both in the
> Guide [better in wiki faq]. Interestingly the accounting period definition
> in the glossary meant nothing to me but the depreciation section has
> "accounting period (IE: fiscal year)" so I Googled fiscal year, found
> financial year then understood it.
>
And I'm talking about the standards and textbooks written by people who know far more about accounting than I do. The GNUCash manual, with respect, is not taught in any high school, university or professional programme that I've been exposed to.

You're evidently very passionate about your position for reasons that don't make any sense to me - so much so that you fall to the very mistakes you accuse me of making. In my line of work, though, I'd rather help  clients understand the basics of accounting - including proper vocabulary - so I can advise them on the difficult stuff. I didn't spend almost 10 years in post-secondary education to be a glorified data entry clerk (and nor would people want to hire me for data entry on the rates that I have to charge).

My opinion is based on doing this for a living and relying on the evidence I've collected. The evidence has taught me that using proper terminology is more efficient than weak synonyms for communicating and training. If you want to convince me that I'm wrong, show me the evidence that GNUCash users are too stupid to learn accounting vocabulary.