Sure, I don't like mondays is a phrase that's used too often. Especially when you consider the tragic story behind that beautiful song. But still, today was one of those days... Again.
In fact, I actually tried to amuse myself in the train by calculating the shittiness of stuff that happened today. Of course, I only engaged in this truly breath-taking mirth because I was bored as hell thanks to another horror show of my good friends NMBS & NS.
So my first exercise was to think about train delays and how to calculate their influence on your day. So I came up with value d, which is the time it actually takes you to get to work divided by the amount of time your commute usually takes. The higher d (especially d > 1), the more reason you have to complain. In my case, today d = 442 / 330. I then tried to refine the equation, by splitting up this total value d in d at any given point in time: d(t). So I could then calculate how much shittier delays get as you progress through your commute.
Anyway that's where it ended, as I'm pretty sure the math was getting dodgy there (it's not really right I know), and moreover, I couldn't find any other interesting values. I tried some stuff with m, which is text messages received minus text messages sent (ideally your value should be positive), but that wasn't much fun either.
But while I was thinking about shitty stuff to count and ways to calculate its effect, I started thinking of other things that proved more difficult to count. Like how many times I had genuinely said hello to someone today (zero). Or how often I had thought about my citytrip next weekend (zero). Or the amount in euros (zero) I had given to that guy who came up to me in Antwerp Central Station at the end of my 'shitty' day, asking if I could spare something for the homeless.
I even knew his name, for fuck's sake, and I'm sure he recognized me as well from all those years ago...
As one mathematician once said: Sometimes it is useful to know how large your zero is.
In fact, I actually tried to amuse myself in the train by calculating the shittiness of stuff that happened today. Of course, I only engaged in this truly breath-taking mirth because I was bored as hell thanks to another horror show of my good friends NMBS & NS.
So my first exercise was to think about train delays and how to calculate their influence on your day. So I came up with value d, which is the time it actually takes you to get to work divided by the amount of time your commute usually takes. The higher d (especially d > 1), the more reason you have to complain. In my case, today d = 442 / 330. I then tried to refine the equation, by splitting up this total value d in d at any given point in time: d(t). So I could then calculate how much shittier delays get as you progress through your commute.
Anyway that's where it ended, as I'm pretty sure the math was getting dodgy there (it's not really right I know), and moreover, I couldn't find any other interesting values. I tried some stuff with m, which is text messages received minus text messages sent (ideally your value should be positive), but that wasn't much fun either.
But while I was thinking about shitty stuff to count and ways to calculate its effect, I started thinking of other things that proved more difficult to count. Like how many times I had genuinely said hello to someone today (zero). Or how often I had thought about my citytrip next weekend (zero). Or the amount in euros (zero) I had given to that guy who came up to me in Antwerp Central Station at the end of my 'shitty' day, asking if I could spare something for the homeless.
I even knew his name, for fuck's sake, and I'm sure he recognized me as well from all those years ago...
As one mathematician once said: Sometimes it is useful to know how large your zero is.
Grappig, dat van die smsen tellen deed ik ook al eens...
ReplyDeleteBieke