Volume 4 · The Ledger and the Loom · Essay 308

Yellow Pad

There are ideas that shout. Yellow Pad is not one of them. It waits quietly until the day you need it.

The idea is simple, and like most simple ideas it is easy to nod at and hard to use. The nod is free. The use costs attention, every day, in small change.

A rupee saved loudly impresses people for a day. A rupee invested quietly feeds them for years. The bazaar respects the first; life rewards the second.

Money is a good clerk and a terrible master; the arrangement is entirely up to us. The name is new; the wisdom stood at bus stops long before either of us.