As an logician, the lack of transitive property in greater than comparisons has always fascinated me. If A>B and B>C, then numerically, A>C. But when A, B, and C are not numbers, this is not always the case. In a soccer tournament, Team A can defeat Team B, Team B can beat Team C, and Team C could whup team A. Or imagine an election with three candidates, A, B, and C. 2/3 of Americans could prefer Candidate A to B, 2/3 of Americans could prefer Candidate B to C, and although it seems counter-intuitive, 2/3 of Americans could prefer Candidate C to A. (If this seems incomprehensible to you, draw up a 3x3 preference chart and you'll see that it's true. This, incidentally, is why the order of primaries matters so much-- one could order a primary to assure victory for whichever candidate one chose.)

    Obviously the most common example of this phenomenon is the game of rock, paper, scissors. But finding these situations in life is more interesting. I remember trying to think of such a triangle of moral choices in college philosophy class. They usually consisted of things like Do Homework, Call the Girlfriend, or Play Video Games. One could envision a situation where these would have a circular preference chart-- You will do homework instead of playing video games because it needs doing, you will call the girlfriend instead of doing homework because she's more important, but given the choice between calling home and playing games, you'll play games because it's a lot less stress.

    Anyway, I was considering this today when I followed the trajectory of my post-collegiate career and the recommendations of my parents. I finished college, and after the summer, remained unemployed in the area for many months as I Sat Around the House and Wrote (A). My parents opined that I should acquire a Part-Time Job (B). I acquired work at the bookshop, writing a few days a week and working a few days a week. My parents mentioned that this was a waste of time because it was such low-paid scut work, and that I should find a Real Job (C). I finally found a job in the area doing customer service, working full-time, and even training some of the new people. Yesterday, after sharing felicitous news of improvements at my job with my parents, I was told that I should not waste my life with this job that goes nowhere, but should do what I want to do with my life-- namely Writing (A).

    And I guess what I've learned from this is that pleasing one's parents is as easy as A, B, C.