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I started writing and fell down a rabbit hole of math

I started drafting a blog post that really needed a visual aid. So I followed the advice of my high school stats teacher: when you don’t understand a problem, draw a picture.

I pulled up the art app on my tablet and drew this:

It seemed like a reasonable four circle venn diagram. Except when I started labeling it, I realized I needed the pink and the blue to overlap with just each other and not grey or yellow.

So I redrew it.

And then I figured the jetlag was setting in because no matter how I drew it, I couldn’t make the circles overlap right.

So I decided to just google four circle venn diagram and steal someone else’s pretty graph off the internet and re-purpose it.

Except when I googled it, I found out that you can’t make a four part venn diagram with circles!!

Apparently this is because circles can only intersect in at most two points. But you can make venn diagrams for sets N>3 with other shapes like ellipses.

Mind. Blown.

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New blog, who dis?

This isn’t my first blog.

I’ve always loved to write. It’s how I gather my thoughts and express myself creatively. I have a half dozen abandoned or deleted blogs, and another half dozen abandoned or deleted novels. I’ll abandon this one too, someday.

I bought this domain name in October 2016, shortly after my first multiday bike tour and getting my bike wheel tattoo. The name pays homage to this blog post, which calculates the number of miles a cyclist can ride on various foods, including beer, bacon, burritos, and gasoline. Estimates vary based on how hard you ride and what you put in your burrito, but 40-something miles-per-burrito (MPB) is a reasonable expected output.

I think the original intention of this website was to build a business where people could trade goods and services instead of money. Kind of like Thumbtack, but without money, or what Josephine was, but not just for food. For example, I would exchange minor bike repairs for a burrito. Someone else might trade yard work for hemmed pants. It was a very Burning Man sharing economy meets Silicon Valley startup idea I had once.

(Side note: I’ve never been to Burning Man (yet). But I’ll still fix your bike if you buy me a burrito. And yes I’ll even clean the playa dust out of your burner bike.)

I hardly think this blog will focus on bikes, burritos, or burners. I’ll probably talk about all of those things at some point. But I think I just want this blog to be a space where anything I find interesting, anything, gets written about.

No restrictions on topics. No rigid posting schedule. No ulterior motives of making money or building a portfolio. Just authentic blogging.