Term of the day: airline fare
I've used this one enough that I figured I should define it.
An airline fare is something that begs to be figured out, but which at the same time is utterly resistant to any sort of comprehensive understanding. Airline fares themselves are the archetypal example. There are clearly some rules and patterns that apply, but only enough to suck you into trying to figure out something that's fundamentally incomprehensible. Another great example is Lewis Black's famous line: "If it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college." Per his suggestions, don't think about that one for more than 2 minutes at a time. (Also be sure to stop if you feel pain or smell smoke.)
It's usually possible to figure out *some* aspects of an airline fare; that's part of the temptation, after all. There has to be enough sense to it that it seems like you *should* be able to figure it out, but enough chaos that you can't. Too orderly is easy and boring, too random is obviously impossible and boring, but on the cusp... now that's a worthy challenge!
One might make very valid comparisons to gels, fractals and life, all of which only exist on the interesting dividing line between order and chaos.
An airline fare is something that begs to be figured out, but which at the same time is utterly resistant to any sort of comprehensive understanding. Airline fares themselves are the archetypal example. There are clearly some rules and patterns that apply, but only enough to suck you into trying to figure out something that's fundamentally incomprehensible. Another great example is Lewis Black's famous line: "If it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college." Per his suggestions, don't think about that one for more than 2 minutes at a time. (Also be sure to stop if you feel pain or smell smoke.)
It's usually possible to figure out *some* aspects of an airline fare; that's part of the temptation, after all. There has to be enough sense to it that it seems like you *should* be able to figure it out, but enough chaos that you can't. Too orderly is easy and boring, too random is obviously impossible and boring, but on the cusp... now that's a worthy challenge!
One might make very valid comparisons to gels, fractals and life, all of which only exist on the interesting dividing line between order and chaos.