Someone's Version of Life Equation

My dear flatmate MOKL shared this tidbit she found on Friendster. It’s on some guy’s profile. Here’s an edited bit (I removed what I feel is not relevant to this post) of what the person said:

“Basically my life can be summarized into a mathematical equation:Me = m + (g - b) + w*q + n*b + f + cwhich equals the value of my life, indicating the higher it is, the closer I will reach nirvana and have extreme satisfaction of life; where the following variables are described:

• m] is the amount of money I have


• g] are the good traits I have


• b] are the bad traits which are equally as much


• w] is the amount of women I have now


• q] is the quality factor...since I have none now (I think he means women) so we don’t have to bother with q


• nb] is net buddies...after subtracting enemies, backstabbers, gossipers, borrowers, stealers, people who beat me in computer games and any other games, people who call me f**ker and all sorts of unimaginable nicknames...since almost everyone has called me something before other than the name my mother gave me, it is going to be a big negative


• f] stands for family, and fortunately I still have a dad, mum and siblings. Since family relationships are vital in one's life, it is going to be big contribution to the life equation


• c] is my career..”

He summed it up by saying at the end of it all the value is a big zero. I won’t comment on that bit since mine may be hovering somewhere close to that too, for all I know.

What got me thinking, mostly while unloading excess intake of my tummy, is that the equation can’t be linear. I mean, it doesn’t take a mathematician, statistician or even an actuary to surmise that any possible attempt to come out with a life equation should not be linear. Hmm, unless of course, this guy is outlining a general equation whereby there are other sub-equations to each variable. Without going down that path of modeling each of the guy’s variable, I attempted to rewrite (in my mind) the equation. By the time I was less heavy & showered, I still cannot go beyond 2 of the variables: the 1st variable, m & the last, c. Roughly coming out with those variables’ expressions are also basically due to my educational & work background. Variable w is acceptable by itself, but the rest are all subjective & not that easy to evaluate (all can’t have equal weights). Got lazy once I returned to my room.

Hehe, am sure you might think me bonkers or ‘nothing better to do, is it?’ & to even post about this aborted attempt at something that may even be a thesis or doctorate topic, after thinking of it within the span of a shower trip. Feel free to imagine whacking me with a rolled up magazine. This posting qualifies as a rambling. :D

Anyhow, on a final note, if I were to arbitrarily accept such an equation, I’d add another variable to it, r, for religion. I believe even at a very near zero value, which can lead some people to doing not so clever things with their life, variable r would make sure it’ll not happen. There’s again a caveat to it (I am after all, from a technical educational background): r has to be sufficiently (subjective here) strong or have a higher weightage in the equation.

Till later, live long & prosper.