A NR meets a guy he went to school with.
The guy is a miserably underpaid scientist in some academic institution.
- I wonder how you could end up leading such lousy a life,
- the NR remarks, - You were so brilliant at school.
You understood all those things that used to beat my understanding...
- And I wonder how you made such a success,
- the schoolmate confides,
- in the old days you didn't even know how to compute a percentage of an integer...
- Well, my story is simple,
- the NR says,
- I am buying a ton of iron ore for US$1, and selling it for US$2. This remaining one percent is my profit...