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> You can’t calculate NPV. You can only estimate it.

According to Merrian-Webster [1]:

calculate: 1 b: to reckon by exercise of practical judgment : ESTIMATE

[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/calculate

Okay, weird bit of pedantry - pretty sure that if a math test asks you to ‘calculate the product of 127 and 954’ you wouldn’t get many marks for answering ‘about 100,000’, but feel free to staple a copy of the dictionary definition to your exam paper and see if that works for you.

But sure, let me clarify it to: you can’t calculate a precise NPV.

You can only estimate one.

Which, when we are trying to do things like ‘calculate the total assets a bank has’, makes the net present value of their assets a not very reliable number to use.

> Okay, weird bit of pedantry - pretty sure that if a math test asks you to ‘calculate the product of 127 and 954’ you wouldn’t get many marks for answering ‘about 100,000’, but feel free to staple a copy of the dictionary definition to your exam paper and see if that works for you.

I wasn't taking a math test. I was saying something about NPV using a common meaning of an English word. You chose to ascribe a different meaning to that word, and pedantically - and incorrectly - tried to correct me.

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