James DallasJan 16, 2023
Carl T. Bergstrom

Today is Blue Monday, the third Monday of January and supposedly the unhappiest day of the year—according to math!

In fact, the math behind this claim is complete bullshit.

We use the blue monday formula as an example of mathiness, formulas and expressions that may look and feel like math even as they disregard the logical coherence and formal rigor of actual mathematics, in our book _Calling Bullshit_.

Jan 16, 2023 at 10:17amWeb
Show threadbazkie bumpercar | unfluencerJan 16, 2023
@ct_bergstrom That explains why I've been feeling just fine today 
Show threadAidanJan 16, 2023

@ct_bergstrom but without this nonsense we wouldn't have this nonsense

https://youtu.be/cHLbaOLWjpc

(Also not true)

Orkestra Obsolete play Blue Monday using 1930s instruments - BBC Arts

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

YouTube
Show threadCarl T. BergstromJan 16, 2023
@allsumnull Not true, but absolutely fabulous! Loving it.
Show threadAriane TannerJan 16, 2023
@ct_bergstrom
So cool! Love it. Especially as historian of science who investigated the emergence and meaning and reception of the Lotka-Volterra-equations, because they're no bullshit. But other equations apparently are!
Show threadTxemaJan 16, 2023
@ct_bergstrom @manuelfherrador it's more easily to debunk: today it's Croquette Day. It's a mathematical and physical impossibility to be also the faked Blue Monday. 😂
Show threadRichard BairwellJan 16, 2023
@ct_bergstrom IIRC, one of my fellow employees at a certain Maths related EduTech company in London went on TV to talk about this about 15years ago. Basically, it was a PR stunt by a holiday firm (again IIRC) and either their PR agency or the TV company just wanted "someone" in a "maths related official capacity" to present it as "having some basis" and the company was still in an aggressive growth phase.
Show threadSahil 🐧Jan 16, 2023
@ct_bergstrom
Indeed, my exams started today 
Show threadPhilip LenaghanJan 16, 2023
@ct_bergstrom
Show thread🚲Jan 16, 2023
@ct_bergstrom The dimensionless exponent thing is a new one to me, and I can think of one counter-example right off the bat: compounding interest, where time units are in the exponent. They’re acting on rate, which is of course 1/time units, but anyway not a hard and fast rule.
Show threadBoris BarbourJan 16, 2023

@ct_bergstrom

It's rubbish of course, but it wouldn't be difficult to create dimensionless quantities via ratios?

Show threadівась тарасикJan 16, 2023
@ct_bergstrom so… it's #bullshitmonday then.
Show threadTransitBikerJan 16, 2023

@ct_bergstrom Blue Monday?

https://youtu.be/Fy5WM1xYbGo

Or…

https://youtu.be/c1GxjzHm5us
Alternate: https://youtu.be/aJZTfl3DmCU

Fats Domino - Blue Monday [1957]

YouTube
Show threadTom von AltenJan 16, 2023
@ct_bergstrom Two things: first I've heard this B.M. is a Thing, so the PR might not be working; and, the formula seems a rather jolly send-up.
Show threadIts GregoryJan 16, 2023
@ct_bergstrom
So is Blue Monday then the most bullshit on any given day of the year (not being critical of MLK holiday which was actually Sunday), so there's no need to pile on
Show threadPlague DoctorJan 16, 2023
@ct_bergstrom The equation appears to have been done tongue-in-cheek, a joke, that was taken seriously by people who are gullible and ignorant about math and science.
Show threadSophieJan 16, 2023
@tem209 @ct_bergstrom I need something more emphatic than Masto’s star to emphasize this!
Show threadVince Knight (He/Him)Jan 16, 2023
@ct_bergstrom I had no idea that the origins of that "equation" were Cardiff University! 🤦‍♂️
Show threadMike Taylor 🦕Jan 16, 2023

@ct_bergstrom Of course your general point is 100% right.

But I'm interested in the claim that "when you raise a quantity to a power, that power must be a dimensionless number".

What if I thought we get happier through life, with happiness increasting exponentially? Then H = e^t where t is time since birth.

Show threadMike Taylor 🦕Jan 16, 2023

@ct_bergstrom Is it perhaps that one or other of the terms in the exponentiation has to be dimensionless?

Come to think of, what even IS the unit of e^t?

Show threadCarl T. BergstromJan 16, 2023
@mike It's a very good question. I think you always take e ^ r t where r has units of a rate (1/time).
Show threadMike Taylor 🦕Jan 16, 2023
@ct_bergstrom @ct_bergstrom Let me know what you come up with 🙂
Show threadCarl T. BergstromJan 16, 2023
@mike Our replies may have crossed somehow in the cache — I think that when you raise e^t, t is always scaled by a rate r with units (1/time).
Show threadSophieJan 16, 2023
@ct_bergstrom @mike “always” is a bold claim. Btw, what if anything, gets filled up when dimensionless things proliferate?
Show threadAmeriCanuckJan 16, 2023

@ct_bergstrom It's worse than that.

It's completely fabricated to sell vacation packages. There was no "magic formula".

https://www.iflscience.com/blue-monday-is-still-all-capitalism-and-no-science-67091

Blue Monday Is Still All Capitalism And No Science

The PR machine is strong as ever about the non-sense that is Blue Monday.

IFLScience
Show threadTrekJan 16, 2023
@ct_bergstrom I was today years old when I found out that Blue Monday wasn't just a #NewOrder song for #goths
Show threadHïMY SYeD🟩Jan 16, 2023

@ct_bergstrom So, Eastern Orthodox Blue Monday . . .

Is NOT the first Monday in February ?

Show threadJons MostovojsJan 16, 2023

@ct_bergstrom this is why I cringe so much when I hear the "MBA formulas". I think that what they really mean is that there's some multivariable function and that it depends on some variables linearly, on some exponentially or something like this.

Doesn't excuse bullshit, it's just a study in trying to understand what the fuck do MBAs talk about when they say certain things 🤣

Show threadBearGJan 16, 2023
@ct_bergstrom Here is another, a bit silly, espoused by Tom M, one of the Tappet brothers:
work = effort/time
time = $
work = effort/$, so
$ = effort/work
Maximize for $
Show threadHtaggertJan 17, 2023
@ct_bergstrom I had a pretty darn good Monday! Got a new (big) client. My supervisor was kind. I got work done. I got to exercise, dunno 🤷🏻‍♀️