Brain Trust (33 page)

18. HAPPINESS AT WHAT COST?

A wine’s “worth” is its cost multiplied by 1.5 times the hours Jo spends learning. That’s not necessarily English. It’s easier to write it as Worth = 1.5C
_ost
T
_ime
. And if she spends the time working, the worth is the cost plus her pay, or Worth = C
_ost
+ 21.75T
_ime
. Setting these equal (and working/studying for one hour) means 1.5C
_ost
= C
_ost
+ 21.75. Or 0.5C
_ost
= 21.75. Or C
_ost
= $43.50. For any bottle above that amount, Jo would be better off paying for increased worth by studying rather than working.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Julian and Jen, my spectacular editor and agent respectively. You continue to ensure I keep writing and that what I write isn’t total pap. And again, thanks to the scientists included in this book and the ones I chatted with, but whose work I couldn’t find a way to bastardize into the framework of a short, usable tip. Any offbeat humor and gerrymandering for practicality herein is a testament to these scientists’ willingness to both perform the world’s greatest science and then allow it to be humanized in a way that makes it seem the stuff of offhand dinner-party conversation. Humor aside, I’m humbled by the opportunity to punch into your world, if however briefly. And my wife, two kids, and Labrador haven’t yet thrown me out on my ear after hearing yet another totally fascinating conversation recapped over the breakfast table, and for that they deserve not only thanks but medals. And thank you, whoever bought this book! Because of you, I am right now basking on my yacht off the Croatian coast, eating salty caviar and sipping wine of a year whose digits sum to something other than three or four. Or I am at least in the backyard shed insulated with cardboard that is my office, watching in the early morning as hot-air balloons rise from Boulder and squirrels mate on the back fence, while planning my next book. Cheers.

About the Author

GARTH SUNDEM
is the bestselling author of
Geek Logik, The Geeks’ Guide to World Domination
, and
Brain Candy
. You can find him at
garthsundem.com
, as the bimonthly puzzlemaster at
Wired
’s
GeekDad
blog, at
TED.com
, and/or by using a searchlight to broadcast the periodic table of the elements into the night sky (or by baking berry pie). Garth and his wife live in Colorado with their two kids and a large Labrador.

ALSO BY
GARTH SUNDEM

  
Tastier than a Twizzlers yet more protein-packed than a spinach smoothie,
Brain Candy
is guaranteed to entertain your brain! These delicious and nutritious pages are packed with cutting-edge brain science, puzzles and paradoxes, and eye-opening perception tests and hacks.
BRAIN CANDY
$14.00 paper (Canada: $17.00)
978-0-307-58803-6

  
Sorry, beautiful people. These days, geeks rule the world. And here is the book no self-respecting geek can live without—a guide jam-packed with 314.1516 short entries exploring the essential joys of science, pop-culture trivia, paper airplanes, pure geekish nostalgia, and much, much more.
THE GEEKS’ GUIDE TO WORLD DOMINATION
$13.95 paper (Canada: $15.95)
978-0-307-45034-0

Available wherever books are sold