Assignment
Question 1
Throughout most of your accounting education, you prepared your work either manually or in an electronic spreadsheet. Do you believe there are still companies doing the accounting manually? What benefits are there to learning to do the work manually before being introduced to accounting software?
Respond to this...The reason to learn how to do accounting manually is to understand the process. If a computer does steps for you, you need to understand what it is doing and why in order to understand the result that it gives you. Some companies probably still do accounting manually, most likely very small companies with just 1 or 2 employees, who don't want to spend the money on an accounting software, or are just not sure how to use one. Also, accounting software is not perfect. If you don't understand the whole process from learning how to do it manually, your chances of realizing that the software has made a mistake go down, which can be detrimental to the company you work for.
Question 2
In the introductory reading about Jorge Luis Borges, you learned about the opening reference in "The Garden of Forking Paths" to the military historian, Liddell Hart. "Official history," say the editors, "is undermined [by Borges] on the very first page" of his fiction. Does Borges mean to imply in his story that there is no such thing as official history? In your opinion, what is "official history" compared to just "history?" How does one decide which is the official history and which isn't? When possible, be sure to include details from "The Garden of Forking Paths" in your discussion.
Respond to this...Official history is a form of history that is in final form and that can be proven,while history I believe is information that provides facts but simply are factual assumptions based on knowledge that has been acquired. Official history can be concluded with highly reliable evidence such as documents, tangible items, a person who was there, or any such thing that has some sort of visual or vocal representation. Boges also mentions that "nothing" happens in the past and future "only" in the present. Which is true, the past has obviously already been over, and the future is yet to happen. I assume by this the author is trying to say that the present is now and what happens in the current time is more important than the past and future to an extent.