The first thing you need to keep in mind is that sometimes there are no-win situations in life, and these can occur quite often in relationships. However, losing is only temporary. Whether that means you think sustaining a relationship will eventually override the suckiness of the present, or that in no longer sustaining that relationship you'll wind up with a net win after the suckiness goes away, the suckiness is temporary.
Just because it's temporary doesn't mean it doesn't suck. It does.
So you have a few variables to play with now. To reflect the seriousness of this situation, we'll use the renowned font, Comic Sans.
e=effect of suckiness
s=duration of suckiness
t=runtime of equation
z=time-happiness modifier
h=happiness
x=suck length-intensity modifier
Of course we're assuming your end goal is some sort of happiness. Later we can factor in se=effort to overcome suck which will impact happiness one way or another, but for now we'll keep it simple - and by simple I mean not actually backed by any sort of math whatsoever and we're just going to pull a function out of fuzzy bunnyspace. Also, by simple, I mean happy, and by that I mean happiness is often best represented as a negative value.
So on one side of the equation we have h, glorious happiness. On the other side we're going to have t, z, x, s, and e. We need time because in order to determine what sucks less, we need to establish a boundary of relevance. Beyond some point, we're just trying to predict the future, and underneath some other point it won't even matter because you're right in the middle of the no-win scenario. We need z because if your goal is a positive (negative) h value, we need to assume that at some point a positive h value will exist and it'll only happen over a period of time, and more importantly because we need to get the units right. Got it? Good. We need s and e because at some multiplicative value they are going to be what differentiates the h value of whatever situation you intend to go with. And finally we need x to get the units right.
So, throwing these together we get:
happiness=negative([time] times [the time-happiness modifier which is based on the assumption that a happiness value exists is possible and only valid given some period of time]) minus ([the length of period of suck] times [the intensity of the suck] times [a constant that allows addition to work between units of suck and units of happiness]).
Or:
h=-(z*t)-(x*s*e)
(functional reasoning of z and x: we're doing math between variables whose units are unknown. On one side we have "happiness" so whatever units we express that in needs to be the end result of the other side as well, or else they're not actually equal. The same reasoning applies to tz-se, where we need them to be in the same units or else we won't actually be subtracting anything. Therefore h units can also be expressed in tz units, or se units. z and x are constants in the equation and do not change.
You may notice then, that when applied to a situation, the only things that change based on the situation are s and e. You could also make the argument that z needs to vary from situation to situation, because they are long term and will effect your h value as well. Instead of complicating things further (to me, since I'm making this up as I go) we're going to add another constant so that z can be an independent variable. We'll call it outlook since that's what most impacts how time effects happiness, so lk for short. To provide the constant that we're extracting from z we'll take the letter a.
Thus:
h=happiness
t=runtime
lk=time-happiness variable, outlook, or the other side of z when we take out a
s=length of suckiness
e=effect of suckiness
a=constant to ensure h units
x=constant to ensure h units
h=-((a*t*k)-(x*s*e)
Or perhaps more appropriately, h=-((t*a*lk)-(s*e*x)), which when we account for the double negative, becomes h=(-t*a*lk)+(s*e*x) or more conveniently h=(s*e*x) minus (t*a*lk).
In application, we're going to consider two scenarios:
1. you break up with your significant hamster
2. you keep it together (assuming that the time kept together is longer than t)
Net happiness of 1. is going to be how hard and how long the break up will suck subtracted from the product of how you recover over time and the amount of time elapsed. t can be increased until you're uncertain how time will affect your happiness related to this subject. Basically an increase in time will always result in a positive h value after a certain point. However for the purposes of this problem, since we are comparing the h values of one scenario versus another, t must remain constant between the two, and therefore can be no larger than the length of scenario 2 if we're going to get anything meaningful out of this.
Net happiness of 2. is going to be how hard and how long the sucky period of working things out subtracted from the product of how things continue and the time it continues.
So, consider the variables. Both are going to suck. Establish how long you think they'll suck for and how hard they'll suck versus your best guess at the remaining time in the equation and how happy you think you'll be for that time. See? Simple.
Also, aside from establishing a formula, which was marginally hypothetical, establishing the variables is total guesswork.
What does any good Hawken player do when they're up against something that looks like pure guesswork?
They learn from it.
That's all.
Edited by ticklemyiguana, 13 January 2016 - 03:32 AM.