the PITS

There are a variety of things that people do by themselves in their free time: watch TV, watch movies, play games, read books, and so on. However, I've been realizing more and more that at some point, entertainment becomes more of a job and less of...well, entertainment.

I've noticed that the more backlog one has of a certain something, the more job-like it becomes as the person feels pressured to catch up. Let's call this phenomenon the PITS, or the Point of Interest Turning Sour.

(Above: Fuck, you guys again? I just watched you guys last week!)

There is, I believe, a way to quantify the PITS. First, take how many episodes/movies/games/books/whatever you have to do to 'catch up.' We'll assign this as 'i' for 'incomplete,' with i>0. Then you have how many things you've completed in the past two weeks, since that's a decent period to determine just how much time you're pouring into a specific activity. We'll label this 'c' for 'completed,' with c>0 as well.

Now, set i over c, so it becomes the fraction i/c. However, you want to multiply 'c' by 2, because if you can't catch up at twice the rate you're currently going at, then that's a good indication that you're in the PITS. So, right now we have PITS = i/2c.

But, we haven't accounted for the other activities. Most people do not only watch TV or only read books; they do a mix of several things, and this factors into the PITS as well. You'll want to apply the same i/2c formula to every other activity you do for fun. But, as more activities build up, the more time it'll take up and the less likely it'll be you'll catch up. So, you'll want to add all of them together, then multiply everything by the number of activities. From there, if the total is between 2-4, you're probably ok. If the PITS value is 4, though, then you're probably trudging along trying to finish everything, with the risk of falling behind further as more episodes/movies/books/games get released.

For example, right now I'm watching TV, playing video games, and reading books in my free time. Let's say my TV watching for all shows is currently at: 3/(2*9), which is 1/6. However, my video game playing is at 8/(2*3), or 4/3. And finally, my book reading is at 2/(2*2), or 1/2. Adding them all together, I get 12/6, or 2. Multiply that by 3 for the number of activities, and I get 6. So, my PITS value is at 6. I am deep into PITS territory.

Now, you can clearly see that video games account for most of it, because I'm farthest behind for that. By itself, though, it isn't so bad; given some time, I could easily catch up. But once I factored in TV and books, you can see that my entertainment has taken on the form of a part-time job. What's your PITS value? Let me know!

And this concludes what is probably the nerdiest and most mathematically-inclined post I will ever write in my life.