Man Math
Article by Tom Shaw
Muscle Car Review
April 2011
"So you've got a new box of resto parts or a new muscle car, parts car, expensive collectible, or treasure from eBay. You know if the missus discovers it, she'll set her phaser to kill. Too bad she just doesn't understand what a fantastic find a mud-caked axlehousing from a '71 Dodge Dart really is. But that's beside the point.
The challenge at hand is to win her over to your point of view. You've got to communicate, in terms she understand, what an important find you've made and why mere money should never stand in the way of genuine project car progress. For this, you'll need Man Math.
Man Math is feel-good, open minded, outcome-based, beyond-binary math that refuses to settle for one rigid, dogmatic right or wrong answer. It's more open, more tolerant of other ideas and alternate possibilities. It's hippie math. You wouldn't want your doctor of pilot using it, but sometimes it's just what the car guy needs.
For example, you just bought another Quadrajet carb off eBay for $200. Recarpeting the bedroom can wait a little longer, right? So strict, no-fun, killjoy wife math would simply take your checking balance and deduct $200. Example: Current balance of $650 minus $200 equals new balance of $450.
Wrong. That's so simplistic.
Man Math takes into account the context of the expenditure and its effect on the big picture. If I may demonstrate: You know that non-running engine you'be got in storage out in the garage? The one you took out of a donor car back when disco was the hot, new trend? Well, it hasn't fired a cylinder since before the rabbit attacked Jimmy Carter, but with that Quadrajet making it run, how much would that engine be worth now? Parted out, maybe $800 to $1,000. But in good, running condition, a couple thou? Maybe $2,500? So that carb didn't cost $200, it increased the value of that dormant engine by a thousand dollars. Even backing out the price of the carb, it made you $800! That's Man Math."
The article goes on, but I think you guys get the idea of what Man Math is. So how many have actually used Man Math ?
If you want to read the rest of the article it is in the
April 2011
Muscle Car Review
Author Tom Shaw
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Get in, sit down, shut up, hold on...cause Ms Grumpy is driving !
For the audio geek try: www.audiokarma.org
Last edited by Ms Grumpy; 04-15-2011 at 12:39 PM.
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