- Money now is more valuable than the same money later.
- The above applies for all parties to varying degrees.
- Some operations are money-constrained.
- There are ways to move money forwards or backwards in time.
Now most businesses are not in a position to financially engineer all that much, rendering the response to a given situation per the above axioms rather simple.
However I agree with the piece in its insistence that you shouldn’t just look to the obvious categorical solutions — there may be some interesting opportunities to find in the cracks. This point was well outlined in the example of the restaurant owner securing a discount by pre-paying for ingredients.
I would love to hear some non-monetary examples of axiomatic reasoning failures. Whenever I reflect back on a process I led a couple of years prior, I am startled by my limited awareness of dynamics/risks/opportunities — even though I was confident at the time and it went well. These reflections make it clear to me that we are always missing useful information, and I further laud the author for acknowledging this fact.