Optimists have more fun

I am changing how I view the world.
One of the problems with living in a society undergoing marked socioeconomic change is that our eye to what was and what will be expects not a slow cycle of ages, with salient difference centuries distant on either side, but shifts and swings that are noticeable in a generation. If you're like me, this can enable viewing the present only in how it stacks up to what recently was, and what soon will be - with an eye to what should be, since our society, or at least portions of it to which I subscribe, also expects active criticism of the status quo.

Given that we're in the kind of long-term trouble that has economists shaking their heads (at best, we will have to adjust to a markedly different way of doing things; at worst we're fucked), such a world-view makes it hard to be happy in ones surroundings.

Whether or not the world will end tomorrow, there is something to be said for enjoying one's surroundings, be they dynamic, transitive or static. If your neighbourhood is being gentrified, or your economy is in some serious shit, this does not mean that you're obliged to cringe whenever you look outside. You can try to fix, avoid or accept the problem, whether or not you're moping about it.

Wise people in our less fortunate ages understood that this year may be good, but there will be famines, sickness and death, yet I doubt they tried to drive keen minds to depression or isolation in the same ways that we do - or the same way that I'm habituated to doing to myself.

If I owe the world something and have some duty to mend what is, then I should keep in mind that I'm also more productive when I'm happy, thus you could I'm obliged to be more cheery as a means to maximizing my personal utility.

Or - I could smarten up and drop the intellectualization and self-ablation and just say, "As long as I'm here, I might as well enjoy it."

Queer math

I just sent this email off to a queer speed-friending/dating site.

.......................................

I would love to know how you solved the combinatoric/organizing problem inherent in queer speed friending/dating. I've filled many a piece of paper trying (and failing) to figure it out and present it in a simple form so that participants could follow instructions.

Hetero speed dating is fairly simple - everyone in group A (i.e. women who like guys) has to meet everyone in B (i.e. guys who like women), but neither A nor B is to meet anyone in their own group - you just form an inner and outer circle and one rotates. There are n people; n/2 in A and n/2 in B and you have n^2/4 meetings with n/2 happening at per turn with n/2 turns.

Same-sex speed dating is a more complicated as it requires n*(n-1)/2 meetings and the double-circle method fails to introduce everyone to everyone else. How did you do it so that everyone meets each-other without making the instructions too complicated for participants to follow? Did you group everyone into groups A and B, do the double-circle for one complete rotation then subdivide A and B and repeat with two double circles, repeating until done?

I could see it work if you had 4, 8, 16, 32 and so on people and could give everyone a slip of paper with who they need to talk to next, or a number slightly below an exponent of two, with a few people sitting out each round

I'd love to know how you did it - and I'd like to attend the next 19+ Rhizome event too,

- Amy