Many years ago, a wise old king called hos wise man together and gave them a commission, “I want you to compile for me the ‘wisdom of the ages’. Put it in book so we might leave it to posterity.” The wise men left their king and worked for a long period of time. They finally return with twelve volumes and proudly proclaimed that this truly was the “wisdom of the ages”.
The king looked at the twelve volumes and said, “Gentlemen, I’m certain this is the wisdom of the ages and contains the knowledge we should leave to mankind. However, it is so long, I fear the people wont’t read it. Condense it.” Again, the wise men worked long time and hard before they returned with only one volume. The king repeated his request that they condense their work. The wise men finally reduced it to a sentence. When the wise old king saw the sentence, he was absolutely elated.
The sentence simply said, “There is no free lunch.”
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
– Milton Friedman
