Ha! The only reason why she’d ever have a Becky wiki would be to strategically spread false information to deliberately mislead her foes in 5D chess with time travel!!! ?
“BecKryptonite is not real. Do not believe everything you read on a wiki, dumbass!!!”
I could totally see Dina sharing that with Becky’s next partner if for any reason they separated, too. “Here, it’s everything I’ve learned about her. Study it well, I will be watching.”
I think you’re technically correct, but Becky’s a PoliSci major and works off of feelings. “Scandalized is bad, Happy is good, Scandalized and happy have the same value, that’s clearly inverse proportion.”
From a strictly logical standpoint, Good things should make you Happy and Happiness should make you feel Good. Becky saying that something good is making her happy and feeling good is making her feel and act distressed is counter to the definition of happiness.
In this case, religion and it’s taboos are creating a cognitive dissonance that wouldn’t exist from a purely scientific and secular point of view.
Agemegos
No, that isn’t what she said. She said that Dina making her very happy would lead to her projecting little scandal, whereas Dina making her not particularly happy would lead to her projecting a great deal of scandal, and that Dina making her unhappy would lead to her projecting a negative amount of scandal. More happiness —> less (projected) scandal. That seems intuitive, not counterintuitive.
Yeah, I actually thought about the mathematics of that for a bit…
The further Becky is away from Dina physically and mentally, the harder it will be for her to make her happy, the more scandalized she feels.
Therefore, the scandalized feeling acts as a kind of restorative force that aids the relationship while at the same time not depending on it.
Actually, this is much like strong nuclear force, in both the sense that the strength is inversely proportionate to distance, and that these two brains working together have a power like no other ever conceived!!! ? ?
Eh, I just compel myself to turn what they’re saying into a mental picture of the scenario. And if the picture doesn’t check out, they’re probably wrong.
Even if it turns out to be garbage in the end, it’s still fun to think about this stuff. In fact I miss being able to do it for fun as much as I used to.
I imagine it’s hard for mathematicians, but really you just have to turn off thinking about maths to listen to people. What they mean is often clear enough in context even if the actual words are grammatical and mathematical nonsense, as they often are.
What would work out even better is one dollar the first time someone used exponential growth incorrectly, then two dollars the second time, four dollars the third time, …
I think this could very well be a stresser point in their relationship. Dina was indifferent to religion before but will assume it is an active evil now. Becky has grown stronger in her faith because it was a comfort against the persecution of religious hypocrities and fundamentalists that was a major part of Jesus’ ministry (and helped get HIM killed).
They may talk past themselves to a temporary breakup.
Yes, there’s a difference between, “Religion is stupid because it’s worshiping invisible sky fairies” [i.e. same was Walky’s take] and “I believe that my loved one is in a cult mentality.”
Which is something I’ve experienced and I got VERY worried/angry/hostile.
Thag Simmons
Literally one of the first things Dina and Becky did together was try and correct the lies that Becky was told by the cult she was raised in
Right but this might prompt Dina to try to actively push Becky away from religion
Bryy
Yeah, I think Dina’s almost there.
alongcameaspider
I figure it’ll only get worse when Dina finally learns Joyce is Athiest and Dina thinks “if Joyce can stop believing this stuff Becky can too”
billfish
Well, but Becky threw out the destructive stuff and kept the supportive stuff, while having a realistic, humorous, and progressive idea of the emotional work involved, while Joyce threw out the whole structure while not addressing the emotional backwash, thus driving herself into depression.
BarerMender
I think the above strip shows that Becky hasn’t thrown out the destructive stuff. Dina’s speech in the 4th frame makes my point.
Omskivar
It’s one thing For Becky to say “I’m throwing out the bad parts and keeping the good” and another entirely to be able to ignore the shame and fear that’s been ingrained in her from the very beginning. I haven’t been a practicing Catholic for almost 20 years, and I still feel dirty and sinful sometimes when I have sex *within the confines of marriage.* It’s going to take a lot of time and work for Becky to get to a point where she doesn’t immediately feel and think the way she was taught to.
thejeff
It’s a process. It’s not like Joyce has gotten rid of all the destructive stuff either, despite losing her belief.
The programming can be put into place using religion, but it isn’t the religion itself. It doesn’t go away in a flash if you stop believing and you can work on getting rid of it without losing the belief.
Jungle Dwayne
Not sure Becky threw out *all* the destructive stuff. Exhibit A: today’s strip.
Very good point Needful. I know that terror all too well.
Becky’s naturally afraid of the unknown, afraid of change, of what’s to become of her in this endeavor. But at the same time, she’s even MORE terrified of what would happen if she doesn’t do something about her brain worms — having to live with the constant AGONY of knowing that her life, her mind, is not her own, of being trapped in certain unhappiness as opposed to the being free to pursue uncertain happiness in personal and intellectual freedom.
The work of brain worms like hers is not easily undone, and careful, methodical yet still scary measures are often necessary for the sake of those bound by them. And this is coming from an alien parasite that lives by possessing a human brain.
sdrainbow
While I respect your right to your opinion on this storyline, I can’t help but vehemently disagree.
Dina’s “Dina: 1, god: 0” shtick at the end of the sexing struck me as very sad. And I’m as anti-Christian as anybody!
I just don’t think Dina and Becky have the same end goal, and that conflict is going to hurt. They have similar MIDDLE goals – clearing out the creationist cobwebs, as you point out – but Dina seems to want Becky completely unbelieving, and Becky emphatically does not want that.
It might be tempting (no pun intended) to think that this desire of Becky’s would simply cease to exist once they crossed into borderline sexual territory. But this is likely not the case.
Becky is fully aware of what Dina is doing, and actually wants it for the sake of proving herself to her personal God. If she at all fails to believe in general or hold on to her principles, she would not blame Dina, for to her that would be equivalent to blaming God and rejecting what he had gifted her, which to her is unthinkable. It would follow naturally that she must blame herself, for “not being strong enough”.
sdrainbow
” It would follow naturally that she must blame herself, for “not being strong enough”.”
Yes, it is true as it is ATROCIOUS that Becky is left with a burden of shame that rightfully belongs with her long-dead indoctrinators. ???
This severe toxicity instilled in her brain through years of conditioning and abuse would be more than enough to compel Dina to take whatever action is necessary to free her beloved girlfriend from her wretched chains.
I doubt it. Becky seems to have some idea about the difference between religion and church teachings (contrast Joyce) and she seems willing to fight both to keep her faith and to get rid of her indoctrination. Dina I imagine understands that difference much better, and I can’t imagine she wouldn’t want to support Becky with both those separate but related struggles.
Even if she doesn’t completely understand why Becky needs to believe in God, I imagine she (Dina) respects that she (Becky) needs to. Trying to take that away from her and leave her with nothing would be an asshole thing to do, yes I’m looking at you Joyce.
JBento
That’s very clearly not what Joyce did. Joyce was, in fact, minding her own business. If there’s one member of that pairing that’s trying to take somethng away from the other, it’s Becky and her attempts to manipulate Joyce back into religion.
Needfuldoer
Becky doesn’t understand why Joyce would throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Joyce thought they were escaping together.
Up until their fight, they both assumed they were on the same page. They were barely in the same book.
JBento
There’s no baby.
Needfuldoer
Not unless Joe uses super-science on a Super Soaker like he did in Shortpacked!.
BBCC
There clearly is a baby in the bathwater for Becky though. While she definitely has religious trauma, she also got some good out of it and she’s unwilling to give that up.
Delicious Taffy
Maybe Becky should spend less time trying to keep hallucinatory babies into bath tubs, and spend more time fucking her hot girlfriend.
I don’t know when Joyce would have not been doing something to the effect. I know that she “wants” to make Becky see the light of atheism.
An atheism which is a new and exciting and completely unexamined way for Joyce to rebel against the beliefs she has been brought up with, that she also hasn’t examined. Compared to Becky who we have seen carefully studies both the Bible and her own neuroses to figure out all the things that are wrong with her beliefs and herself to try to fix them.
It’s true both Becky and Joyce are trying to push each other to revert back to a more familiar form for their own emotional comfort, and they’re both wrong. In that respect I’m going to forgive both of them for being two particularly emotionally ill equipped, codependent children left to their own devices in an uncaring world and struggling to hold on to anything familiar.
But that is not why I’m calling Joyce an asshole. It’s because she’s an evangelical atheist who doesn’t understand what atheism or religion or God is for, who barely understands any difference between any of those things, who still feels the need to convince everyone the impossibility of proving or disproving God’s existence has been solved because it turns out God is fake. It’s so entitled and judgmental and thoughtless it makes me angry, and I expect if she and Becky can talk through their conflicting wishes for each other, unless Joyce can grow up some more, her inability to tolerate people with different beliefs is going to be the thing that drives her and Becky apart.
JBento
“I don’t know when Joyce would have not been doing something to the effect. I know that she “wants” to make Becky see the light of atheism.”
No, she does not. She wants Becky to do so, but she doesn’t want to MAKE Becky do so, which is a super-important distinction. Only of those two actually actively tried to change the other’s stance, and that was Becky’s little song manouevre.
“who still feels the need to convince everyone the impossibility of proving or disproving God’s existence has been solved because it turns out God is fake.”
Again, this is not a thing that Joyce has initiated.
Spencer
I mean yeah, I think that’s an important distinction to made.
Joyce is not trying to make Becky change. She will mock Becky to her face about it when they’re fighting, but the way she framed it at the end of the Faith-Off was “she’s smart, she’ll get it,” ie: Becky just has to figure out like Joyce did.
This is still mean, also it’s not “you’ve been lying to me FOREVER and I have to trick you into being Christian again.”
JBento
Like, Joyce’s actual response to the whole thing is the two-parter of:
i) meh’ing the whole situation and go focus on her comic, and
ii) repeatedly subsuming her own feelings, thoughts, and emotions to appease Becky, under blackmail by Dorothy, which Becky immediately used to try to “yank at the ol’ god-strings”.
“Just please understand that the exact magnitude of how scandalized I project myself is in inverse proportion to how happy you make me.”
…wait, so does that mean that if Becky projects as a lot scandalized, then Dina has only made her a little happy? Or has the math part of my brain finally quit working like everything else?
(Basically what I’m trying to figure out is if this is a “y=-x” thing or a “y=1/x” thing).
Yes, the correct meaning of “inversely proportional” is definitely Y=1/X.
Dina must somehow be guessing Becky’s actual intended meaning here, or she wouldn’t describe it as “counterintuitive”. Instead, it would probably seem counterfactual to her. Further observation is likely to confirm that Becky’s more scandalized behavior does NOT imply that Dina is making her less happy.
Clif
Y=-X doesn’t work as you can’t have a negative magnitude and Becky specified magnitude. The magnitude of X and -X is the same as |X|=|-X|.
Now it’s true that what Becky said was Happyness = 1/(constant projection(|Scandalization|)), but what she meant and Dina correctly understood was Happyness/projection(|Scandalization|)=constant.
181 thoughts on “Inverse”
Ana Chronistic
Dina: *compiles Becky wiki to keep everything
straightrecorded*Doctor_Who
Think Willis and Ethan will have an edit war over it like they did on the TFWiki?
King Daniel
Beckypedia
Needfuldoer
Every page has a 144-point “LESBIAN” headline, per her request.
Librain
Wait, is Becky a LESBIAN??? I have somehow missed this information prior to your sudden revelation!
The Wellerman
Ha! The only reason why she’d ever have a Becky wiki would be to strategically spread false information to deliberately mislead her foes in 5D chess with time travel!!! ?
“BecKryptonite is not real. Do not believe everything you read on a wiki, dumbass!!!”
Jallorn
I could totally see Dina sharing that with Becky’s next partner if for any reason they separated, too. “Here, it’s everything I’ve learned about her. Study it well, I will be watching.”
The Wellerman
Dina, I couldn’t have said it better myself. ?
? Good journey in freeing Becky’s brain, and destroying the living remains of those shit-head indoctrinators!!! ???
*plays “Crossing Field” by LiSA on Hacked Muzak*
BarerMender
I didn’t much care for the song, but the singing was fabulous.
BarerMender
Oops. That was supposed to be a reply to a different post.
Kyrik Michalowski
I don’t have anything to add to this strip. So instead, here is something that made me smile today: https://youtu.be/9go5jzWvJsI
Switchchris24
thank you very much for that, im gonna go watch it on repeat for the next hour lol.
Sambo
Shouldn’t it be *direct* proportion? She’s more scandalized because she’s more happy? Or am I being a dummy and misunderstanding?
Viktoria
I think you’re technically correct, but Becky’s a PoliSci major and works off of feelings. “Scandalized is bad, Happy is good, Scandalized and happy have the same value, that’s clearly inverse proportion.”
RassilonTDavros
…there we go, that explanation works for me. My math brain was equally confuzzled
Agemegos
I, too, am confused as to why this is counterintuitive to Dina.
Thanatos
From a strictly logical standpoint, Good things should make you Happy and Happiness should make you feel Good. Becky saying that something good is making her happy and feeling good is making her feel and act distressed is counter to the definition of happiness.
In this case, religion and it’s taboos are creating a cognitive dissonance that wouldn’t exist from a purely scientific and secular point of view.
Agemegos
No, that isn’t what she said. She said that Dina making her very happy would lead to her projecting little scandal, whereas Dina making her not particularly happy would lead to her projecting a great deal of scandal, and that Dina making her unhappy would lead to her projecting a negative amount of scandal. More happiness —> less (projected) scandal. That seems intuitive, not counterintuitive.
Koms
Yeah I’m confused too… the happier Dina makes her, the more scandalized she projects herself. Isn’t that directly proportional?
The Wellerman
Yeah, I actually thought about the mathematics of that for a bit…
The further Becky is away from Dina physically and mentally, the harder it will be for her to make her happy, the more scandalized she feels.
Therefore, the scandalized feeling acts as a kind of restorative force that aids the relationship while at the same time not depending on it.
Actually, this is much like strong nuclear force, in both the sense that the strength is inversely proportionate to distance, and that these two brains working together have a power like no other ever conceived!!! ? ?
Reltzik
The basic rule of understanding the math that other people say is to realize that most people don’t actually understand the math they’re saying.
Like, if I had a dollar for every time someone said something was growing exponentially when it was actually something like quadratic growth….
The Wellerman
Eh, I just compel myself to turn what they’re saying into a mental picture of the scenario. And if the picture doesn’t check out, they’re probably wrong.
Even if it turns out to be garbage in the end, it’s still fun to think about this stuff. In fact I miss being able to do it for fun as much as I used to.
Amelie Wikström
I imagine it’s hard for mathematicians, but really you just have to turn off thinking about maths to listen to people. What they mean is often clear enough in context even if the actual words are grammatical and mathematical nonsense, as they often are.
Shadowsnail
What would work out even better is one dollar the first time someone used exponential growth incorrectly, then two dollars the second time, four dollars the third time, …
Agemegos
Maybe, but I would expect Dina to understand the maths that Becky was saying.
Amelie Wikström
I think she just used the opposite word by accident. Nice bit of dialogue writing, if so.
Leadsynth
Yeah, I’m pretty sure it should be direct proportion.
Get Joyce, she’s good at math!
Delicious Taffy
This two kooky kids are gonna be just fine.
BarerMender
I dunno. I have to wonder how much of this Dina will put up with.
The Wellerman
I very much doubt it is in her nature to be afraid of a challenge.
Especially given what’s in it for her. The two working together, none shackled by indoctrination, can wield a BRAIN POWER like no other. ??
Reltzik
Dina’s reassessing what it means to actually beat God here.
Delicious Taffy
She’s gonna need both hands and probably some butter.
The Wellerman
For a Food Wars style food battle?
Yes please!!! ??
C.T. Phipps
I think this could very well be a stresser point in their relationship. Dina was indifferent to religion before but will assume it is an active evil now. Becky has grown stronger in her faith because it was a comfort against the persecution of religious hypocrities and fundamentalists that was a major part of Jesus’ ministry (and helped get HIM killed).
They may talk past themselves to a temporary breakup.
Thag Simmons
Dina’s take on religion has always been negative, and when she deems it harmful she has been openly hostile to it.
C.T. Phipps
Yes, there’s a difference between, “Religion is stupid because it’s worshiping invisible sky fairies” [i.e. same was Walky’s take] and “I believe that my loved one is in a cult mentality.”
Which is something I’ve experienced and I got VERY worried/angry/hostile.
Thag Simmons
Literally one of the first things Dina and Becky did together was try and correct the lies that Becky was told by the cult she was raised in
alongcameaspider
Right but this might prompt Dina to try to actively push Becky away from religion
Bryy
Yeah, I think Dina’s almost there.
alongcameaspider
I figure it’ll only get worse when Dina finally learns Joyce is Athiest and Dina thinks “if Joyce can stop believing this stuff Becky can too”
billfish
Well, but Becky threw out the destructive stuff and kept the supportive stuff, while having a realistic, humorous, and progressive idea of the emotional work involved, while Joyce threw out the whole structure while not addressing the emotional backwash, thus driving herself into depression.
BarerMender
I think the above strip shows that Becky hasn’t thrown out the destructive stuff. Dina’s speech in the 4th frame makes my point.
Omskivar
It’s one thing For Becky to say “I’m throwing out the bad parts and keeping the good” and another entirely to be able to ignore the shame and fear that’s been ingrained in her from the very beginning. I haven’t been a practicing Catholic for almost 20 years, and I still feel dirty and sinful sometimes when I have sex *within the confines of marriage.* It’s going to take a lot of time and work for Becky to get to a point where she doesn’t immediately feel and think the way she was taught to.
thejeff
It’s a process. It’s not like Joyce has gotten rid of all the destructive stuff either, despite losing her belief.
The programming can be put into place using religion, but it isn’t the religion itself. It doesn’t go away in a flash if you stop believing and you can work on getting rid of it without losing the belief.
Jungle Dwayne
Not sure Becky threw out *all* the destructive stuff. Exhibit A: today’s strip.
The Wellerman
Even if that were the case, it’s overwhelmingly likely that she’d be very smart, strategic, subtle and above all else scientific about it. ???
As confirmed by the Slipshine, she did in fact spend MONTHS calculating every step of her scientific expedition with Becky, much to success!!! ?
When it comes to battle strategy against indoctrinators, Dina’s a FUCKING GENIUS!!! ✌️?
*plays “A Moment For Shuddering” by Christopher Bullock on Hacked Muzak*
C.T. Phipps
That would be so much worse.
Because it’s one thing to be upfront. It’s another attempt to MANIPULATE your partner.
Clif
You can be completely upfront about trying to manipulate someone.
The Wellerman
Is indoctrination not a form of manipulation?
Dina wants Becky more than anything to have a free mind that is not bound by such chains, and Becky SAID HERSELF that she wants to have a brain that’s free of “cobwebs” as she calls them so that she can pursue science, so all would still be consensual.
Let us not draw a false equivalence between objecting to manipulation and being manipulative.
Needfuldoer
Becky can be both desperate to rid herself of brain worms and terrified of what that actually means.
The Wellerman
Very good point Needful. I know that terror all too well.
Becky’s naturally afraid of the unknown, afraid of change, of what’s to become of her in this endeavor. But at the same time, she’s even MORE terrified of what would happen if she doesn’t do something about her brain worms — having to live with the constant AGONY of knowing that her life, her mind, is not her own, of being trapped in certain unhappiness as opposed to the being free to pursue uncertain happiness in personal and intellectual freedom.
The work of brain worms like hers is not easily undone, and careful, methodical yet still scary measures are often necessary for the sake of those bound by them.
And this is coming from an alien parasite that lives by possessing a human brain.sdrainbow
While I respect your right to your opinion on this storyline, I can’t help but vehemently disagree.
Dina’s “Dina: 1, god: 0” shtick at the end of the sexing struck me as very sad. And I’m as anti-Christian as anybody!
I just don’t think Dina and Becky have the same end goal, and that conflict is going to hurt. They have similar MIDDLE goals – clearing out the creationist cobwebs, as you point out – but Dina seems to want Becky completely unbelieving, and Becky emphatically does not want that.
I foresee pain no matter the intentions.
The Wellerman
According to Dina herself, Becky “wishes to feel like she is being seduced, but also craves the security of knowing the seduction will not succeed”.
It might be tempting (no pun intended) to think that this desire of Becky’s would simply cease to exist once they crossed into borderline sexual territory. But this is likely not the case.
Becky is fully aware of what Dina is doing, and actually wants it for the sake of proving herself to her personal God. If she at all fails to believe in general or hold on to her principles, she would not blame Dina, for to her that would be equivalent to blaming God and rejecting what he had gifted her, which to her is unthinkable. It would follow naturally that she must blame herself, for “not being strong enough”.
sdrainbow
” It would follow naturally that she must blame herself, for “not being strong enough”.”
I reiterate my initial premise: “I foresee pain.”
The Wellerman
Yes, it is true as it is ATROCIOUS that Becky is left with a burden of shame that rightfully belongs with her long-dead indoctrinators. ???
This severe toxicity instilled in her brain through years of conditioning and abuse would be more than enough to compel Dina to take whatever action is necessary to free her beloved girlfriend from her wretched chains.
Amelie Wikström
I doubt it. Becky seems to have some idea about the difference between religion and church teachings (contrast Joyce) and she seems willing to fight both to keep her faith and to get rid of her indoctrination. Dina I imagine understands that difference much better, and I can’t imagine she wouldn’t want to support Becky with both those separate but related struggles.
Even if she doesn’t completely understand why Becky needs to believe in God, I imagine she (Dina) respects that she (Becky) needs to. Trying to take that away from her and leave her with nothing would be an asshole thing to do, yes I’m looking at you Joyce.
JBento
That’s very clearly not what Joyce did. Joyce was, in fact, minding her own business. If there’s one member of that pairing that’s trying to take somethng away from the other, it’s Becky and her attempts to manipulate Joyce back into religion.
Needfuldoer
Becky doesn’t understand why Joyce would throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Joyce thought they were escaping together.
Up until their fight, they both assumed they were on the same page. They were barely in the same book.
JBento
There’s no baby.
Needfuldoer
Not unless Joe uses super-science on a Super Soaker like he did in Shortpacked!.
BBCC
There clearly is a baby in the bathwater for Becky though. While she definitely has religious trauma, she also got some good out of it and she’s unwilling to give that up.
Delicious Taffy
Maybe Becky should spend less time trying to keep hallucinatory babies into bath tubs, and spend more time fucking her hot girlfriend.
Amelie Wikström
I don’t know when Joyce would have not been doing something to the effect. I know that she “wants” to make Becky see the light of atheism.
An atheism which is a new and exciting and completely unexamined way for Joyce to rebel against the beliefs she has been brought up with, that she also hasn’t examined. Compared to Becky who we have seen carefully studies both the Bible and her own neuroses to figure out all the things that are wrong with her beliefs and herself to try to fix them.
It’s true both Becky and Joyce are trying to push each other to revert back to a more familiar form for their own emotional comfort, and they’re both wrong. In that respect I’m going to forgive both of them for being two particularly emotionally ill equipped, codependent children left to their own devices in an uncaring world and struggling to hold on to anything familiar.
But that is not why I’m calling Joyce an asshole. It’s because she’s an evangelical atheist who doesn’t understand what atheism or religion or God is for, who barely understands any difference between any of those things, who still feels the need to convince everyone the impossibility of proving or disproving God’s existence has been solved because it turns out God is fake. It’s so entitled and judgmental and thoughtless it makes me angry, and I expect if she and Becky can talk through their conflicting wishes for each other, unless Joyce can grow up some more, her inability to tolerate people with different beliefs is going to be the thing that drives her and Becky apart.
JBento
“I don’t know when Joyce would have not been doing something to the effect. I know that she “wants” to make Becky see the light of atheism.”
No, she does not. She wants Becky to do so, but she doesn’t want to MAKE Becky do so, which is a super-important distinction. Only of those two actually actively tried to change the other’s stance, and that was Becky’s little song manouevre.
“who still feels the need to convince everyone the impossibility of proving or disproving God’s existence has been solved because it turns out God is fake.”
Again, this is not a thing that Joyce has initiated.
Spencer
I mean yeah, I think that’s an important distinction to made.
Joyce is not trying to make Becky change. She will mock Becky to her face about it when they’re fighting, but the way she framed it at the end of the Faith-Off was “she’s smart, she’ll get it,” ie: Becky just has to figure out like Joyce did.
This is still mean, also it’s not “you’ve been lying to me FOREVER and I have to trick you into being Christian again.”
JBento
Like, Joyce’s actual response to the whole thing is the two-parter of:
i) meh’ing the whole situation and go focus on her comic, and
ii) repeatedly subsuming her own feelings, thoughts, and emotions to appease Becky, under blackmail by Dorothy, which Becky immediately used to try to “yank at the ol’ god-strings”.
Darkoneko
They are keeping… the distance
The Wellerman
(see my comparison of the inverse proportionality mathematics to the strong nuclear force above)
RassilonTDavros
“Just please understand that the exact magnitude of how scandalized I project myself is in inverse proportion to how happy you make me.”
…wait, so does that mean that if Becky projects as a lot scandalized, then Dina has only made her a little happy? Or has the math part of my brain finally quit working like everything else?
(Basically what I’m trying to figure out is if this is a “y=-x” thing or a “y=1/x” thing).
Viktoria
What she said is Y=1/X, what she meant is Y=-X. Becky’s a PoliSci major who was homeschooled, math is not her forte.
Al
Yes, the correct meaning of “inversely proportional” is definitely Y=1/X.
Dina must somehow be guessing Becky’s actual intended meaning here, or she wouldn’t describe it as “counterintuitive”. Instead, it would probably seem counterfactual to her. Further observation is likely to confirm that Becky’s more scandalized behavior does NOT imply that Dina is making her less happy.
Clif
Y=-X doesn’t work as you can’t have a negative magnitude and Becky specified magnitude. The magnitude of X and -X is the same as |X|=|-X|.
Now it’s true that what Becky said was Happyness = 1/(constant projection(|Scandalization|)), but what she meant and Dina correctly understood was Happyness/projection(|Scandalization|)=constant.
Nono