A mathematical question appeared in my in box. I answered it.
I must have been in a mood that day. I spent a while contemplating the source of the question, wondered why various people would post a significant number of nearly identical ambiguously worded math problems and posted my answer. I think I know why I answered, and I’ll get to that later. In the meantime here’s the question and my “response”.
Patrick Callahan, works at Unemployment
What an important question. Here’s a well researched response, and a few additional in-depth thought provoking questions, considering this highly original question from a number of points of view:
So are we making omelets, pancakes, waffles or just plain ol’ eggs, fried, scrambled or boiled? For how many? How many eggs would each like? How about you? Do you have concerns about cholesterol?
Who brought us the eggs? Was it Ash? Jane? I’m not sure I’ve met them. Didn’t we have enough eggs already?
Everyone knows Chickens† are known worriers. ‡ Which worries a chicken more, sexism in stories about chickens, salmonella or antibiotics?
And, which came first, the chicken or the egg? Does this question worry you? Are you a chicken? An egg? Are you aware that according to some, a chicken is just an eggs idea for getting more eggs. If that’s so I wouldn’t bother with their worries. On the other hand their collective voices are quite soothing aren’t they, just like certain politicians. We just have to ignore what they are actually saying and everything will be ok!
By the way, I don’t “Work at Unemployment” as the fake news next to my very old picture would have you believe. I work very hard at retirement.
References:
†Henny-Penny and Her Fellow Travelers
‡ The End of the World The Sky Is Falling, folktales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 20C (including former type 2033), in which storytellers from around the world make light of paranoia and mass hysteria (The End of the World), selected and edited by D. L. Ashliman (D. L. Ashliman — Wikipedia), 1999"
Enough already!
So why are there so many nearly identical questions on that web site? Why did I respond?
I think they share the same motivation as my response: Get someone’s attention, anyone’s attention, any way you can. It’s that simple. We’re that lonely.
I posted the answer and shared the link on Facebook and Twitter. I’d hit a nerve. Possibly the one I was aiming for. The one close to the funny bone. Within an hour or so, 400 people had viewed my answer. What fun! A bit of brainstorming, a dash of sarcasm, a pinch of political snark and hundreds were briefly entertained. A fun way to spend an hour or two when I could have been doing something productive.
After seeing the number of hits level off for a bit, I got to thinking. Is this good writing? Nope. At heart, it’s just another internet list. Did the number of responses satisfy any need of mine? Sure. But nothing of great importance, just bit if fun. The responses were anonymous. Just a number of views.
Then a friend I hadn’t been in touch with for far too long saw the post and invited me to lunch. Pay Dirt!
-p callahan