For those of you keeping track at home, this is the second in a two-part series of “Annoying Math Conversations.” The first was “Shopping Math is The New Free.” The video is below but in a nutshell: shopping math means everything is free — if you count what you saved when you spent money on stuff as money you can later spend on more stuff. In other words, all the money you “save” by getting stuff “on sale” counts as “actual money” you can “spend” on “more stuff” later.
Which means: You basically earn money when you spend money, not lose money when you spend money.
Are you following?
This “creative accounting” principle of “using what you don’t really have because you already spent it” but “pretending you still have it and didn’t spend it” applies to “Video Game Math,” too. Here, my son — I mean, a boy — is explaining to my husband — I mean, his father — how the three hours he’s already spent playing video games doesn’t really count and that he’s actually earned MORE time for all the time he’s spent playing video games that didn’t count.
Are you following?
Laura Zigman's Brant 