Took me until late 30’s to figure that out.

Speaking of numbers – anyone that has done even a BIT of work in mathematics – will come across numeric base systems. In base 10 ? sure, 2,000 looks pretty ! in base 9 ? no, it’s not so pretty. Point being, year 2000 ‘psychologically’ – MY view- and I’ve not met a person YET that got this – is MERELY a celebration of base 10.

So, flipping the dial on a coffee break today – granted I work at home – I come across fox Business news going “And thank GOD we’re holding at 12,000 today” ok – maybe God was left out, I’m sure the editors want to keep that played down – but promoted strong in every other way – HOWEVER – 12,000 is MERELY ‘clean’ in base ten.

There is nothing special about base 10 – it would be inappropriate to assign meaning through base – I would think evaluating the DOW Jones would be through examining what had high volume, what was abnormally low, etc, the number is JUST the number, it’s ARBITRARY whether it looks pretty in base 10, or base 7 (octal) –

I mean – 100 in octal looks pretty but you know ? it’s 49 in base 10.

I think it’s sloppy thinking to forget base is arbitrary when assessing value – SURE there is a psychological component, but anyone who would BUY something based on base ? should have their head examined.

“Look honey, it’s ONLY $200,000″ hmm

Now, the home was PROBABLY WORTH $143,238 THEN inflated if via a WaMu appraiser – and THEN rounded up….

The danger in thinking VALUES and the numeration place value extended as nuance through choice of base ? Sheesh, theoretically you could make everything $9.99 and just change the base.

Oh wait, on that note, that just makes it so the price is the same, and the base changes !