# Why are we all the same age today 2018 these things add up to? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 2, 2018, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339 "2018-10-02T22:07:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2018, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339/61 "2018-10-04T15:15:04Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Whoosh. > > It’s a joke, son. 40% is supposed to seem like a lot, a huge percentage of the week, to somebody who hears the claim and doesn’t bother to work out what it’s saying. > > All it does is assume a five-day Monday to Friday work week and that one-fifth of the workers call in sick on any average day. Whether that’s true in reality is completely irrelevant. The point is that people don’t in fact take the time to work out number claims, which makes it another good example of the word play that tricked the OP. That wasn’t how I read it at all. _ **Machine elf** _ seemed to be suggesting that the original amazing fact was as much of a mundane issue as their own 40% one. i.e. that _of_ _course_ it is true but utterly banal. Hey, it is quite possible I misread the intent but it certainly isn’t clear from the post itself. ---
**Author:** ![ebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@ebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ebb)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2018, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339/62 "2018-10-04T15:16:34Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > It will never happen again that if you add your year of birth to your age you will get 2018. So the OP is wrong; it will not happen again in 2000 years. And next year you will be able to add your age to your year of birth and get … 2019. Amazing! Well, that’s only true if the request for a do-over on 2018 doesn’t go through. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2018, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339/63 "2018-10-04T19:23:55Z")
More than 90% of the time, people die within six months of their birthday. Regards, Shodan PS - a bellhop stole a dollar from me and my two friends, and the police wouldn’t do anything about it! ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2018, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339/64 "2018-10-04T19:41:20Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > > [@Red\_Wiggler](#): > > > > Most of us knew that 2+2 = 4 but how many of us were really aware that 3+1 also = 4? Huh? > > Cite? [Here you go](https://www.google.com/search?q=3%2B1&rlz=1CALEAK_enUS811US816&oq=3%2B1&aqs=chrome..69i57j6j0l4.962j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&safe=active&ssui=on). And you would’ve known that was coming, if you yourself had four cite. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2018, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339/65 "2018-10-04T20:11:30Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > That wasn’t how I read it at all. _ **Machine elf** _ seemed to be suggesting that the original amazing fact was as much of a mundane issue as their own 40% one. i.e. that _of_ _course_ it is true but utterly banal. > > Hey, it is quite possible I misread the intent but it certainly isn’t clear from the post itself. He was responding to my post about how the OP was taken in by a word trick and gave an example of another word trick that was similar, one that was an old joke that he assumed would be familiar to everyone. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2018, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339/66 "2018-10-05T07:16:46Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > He was responding to my post about how the OP was taken in by a word trick and gave an example of another word trick that was similar, one that was an old joke that he assumed would be familiar to everyone. I see, if that was a old joke then it certainly isn’t one that is familiar to me and doesn’t seem to make any sense, I don’t see how it is a “work trick” of any kind. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2018, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339/67 "2018-10-05T10:52:03Z")
The OP might also be interested in another math trick someone taught me: If you subtract your year of birth from the current year, the difference tells you how old you are! Well, after your birthday that year, but it always works! ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2018, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339/68 "2018-10-05T11:50:58Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > I see, if that was a old joke then it certainly isn’t one that is familiar to me and doesn’t seem to make any sense, I don’t see how it is a “work trick” of any kind. You are over-analyzing a joke. It makes sense, as already described to death above. I first saw it in a Dilbert cartoon many years ago, so it’s certainly popularized. It’s a word trick in the sense that the data is presented in such a way as to sound surprising but ten seconds of thought reveals that there is actually nothing surprising at all. Dilbert’s pointy-haired boss is incapable of ten seconds of thought. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2018, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339/69 "2018-10-05T12:08:56Z")
This is already one of my favourite threads this year. > [@Chronos](#): > > On the other hand, there are distributions with a perfectly well-defined singular median and mode, but which do not have a mean at all. So if the definition of “average” is that the operation must always result in exactly one output, then the mean isn’t an average either. Can you expand on this, haven’t come across it before and I am intrigued. Or is it another whoosh (seems to be the thread for them)? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2018, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339/70 "2018-10-05T12:09:21Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > I see, if that was a old joke then it certainly isn’t one that is familiar to me and doesn’t seem to make any sense, I don’t see how it is a “work trick” of any kind. It is certainly an old joke (maybe joke isn’t the best word, but it’s supposed to be a shocking observation, but upon further thought, turns out to just be what you would expect at random in a 5-day work week. But, yes, if you continue analyzing it, you can find objections to that, as well.) I don’t know if it originated in Dilbert or not, but I am familiar with it from at least the early 00s, maybe 90s. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2018, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339/71 "2018-10-05T13:00:51Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > You are over-analyzing a joke. It makes sense, as already described to death above. I first saw it in a Dilbert cartoon many years ago, so it’s certainly popularized. It’s a word trick in the sense that the data is presented in such a way as to sound surprising but ten seconds of thought reveals that there is actually nothing surprising at all. Dilbert’s pointy-haired boss is incapable of ten seconds of thought. Quite possibly over-analysing here but the premise of the “joke” simply doesn’t work on any level because the “fact” it puts forward is clearly wrong. You seem to be suggesting that it isn’t surprising to say 40% of sick days are on Mondays or Fridays. Well I hope ten seconds of cursory doesn’t lead you to say “dur! of course it must be 40%” because it isn’t and it was never likely to be. As such it is nothing like the premise of the OP in fact they are at opposite ends of the spectrum. One is described as a complicated scenario (birth years) that masks an obvious truth. The other is a simple statement (sick days) that is wrong and masks a more complicated truth. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2018, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339/72 "2018-10-05T13:06:21Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > It is certainly an old joke (maybe joke isn’t the best word, but it’s supposed to be a shocking observation, but upon further thought, turns out to just be what you would expect at random in a 5-day work week. But, yes, if you continue analyzing it, you can find objections to that, as well.) I don’t know if it originated in Dilbert or not, but I am familiar with it from at least the early 00s, maybe 90s. It only works as a shocking observation if it is true, it isn’t and I don’t think the average person in the street would think that it was obviously true. A better example would be that the average person has less than two arms because it sounds silly but really is trivially true. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2018, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339/73 "2018-10-05T14:08:03Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > It only works as a shocking observation if it is true, it isn’t and I don’t think the average person in the street would think that it was obviously true. > > A better example would be that the average person has less than two arms because it sounds silly but really is trivially true. The context of it as I originally saw it was as a shocking and surprised revelation from management in a typical 9-5 M-F job about the alarming amount of absenteeism on Monday and Friday because 40% of sick days were on those days, only to be pointed out that, hey, 40% of the M-F work week falls on Monday or Friday. Perhaps you had to be there. [Here’s the original Dilbert comic](https://imgur.com/gallery/tERy5j1). Yes, if you overanalyze it death, you’ll miss the joke, but most of us were amused back them by it (at least those of us who were amused by _Dilbert_, which I’m sure many people don’t want to cop to these days.) ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2018, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339/74 "2018-10-05T14:58:44Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Quite possibly over-analysing here but the premise of the “joke” simply doesn’t work on any level because the “fact” it puts forward is clearly wrong. Joke. J-o-k-e. Jokes don’t have to be factually correct, just funny. This joke was relevant to this thread because what at first seems like an amazing fact is actually not amazing at all. We all got the point and chuckled. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2018, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339/75 "2018-10-05T15:03:53Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > This is already one of my favourite threads this year. > > Can you expand on this, haven’t come across it before and I am intrigued. Or is it another whoosh (seems to be the thread for them)? The Cauchy distribution has no mean [Cauchy distribution - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cauchy_distribution) but has a mode and median ---
**Author:** ![sps49sd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@sps49sd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sps49sd)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2018, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339/76 "2018-10-05T15:32:02Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Year of birth + Age = Current Year. > > How is this surprising? fpbp ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2018, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339/77 "2018-10-05T16:54:21Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Joke. J-o-k-e. Jokes don’t have to be factually correct, just funny. This joke was relevant to this thread because what at first seems like an amazing fact is actually not amazing at all. We all got the point and chuckled. I think the most important thing for joke to be funny is that it has to work and it should not need a paragraph of explanation or justification. I think I’ll just chalk this one up to “you had to be there” Even with the explanation given next to the Dilbert strip it make no sense. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2018, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339/78 "2018-10-06T01:13:33Z")
The joke was used in the Dilbert comic strip. It’s set in an office, and we can assume a Monday to Friday work schedule. Yes, there are jobs where people work Saturdays and have Tuesdays off. But in the context of the strip it works. > **[scottadams | Twitter | Linktree](https://linktr.ee/scottadams)** > > If you want to find Dilbert or Scott Adams, here are some leads. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2018, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339/79 "2018-10-06T04:43:29Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > So this is really freaking me out. > I added the year I was born, my age AND the age I was when I was when born AND STILL GOT 2018! > I think I may be the only person where this is true. It works for me, but I’m not after I subtracted the number of unicorns I’ve ridden. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2018, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339/80 "2018-10-06T04:55:24Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > More than 90% of the time, people die within six months of their birthday. > > Regards, > Shodan > > PS - a bellhop stole a dollar from me and my two friends, and the police wouldn’t do anything about it! Truth. And 95% of the time (more according to some studies), a person’s heart was beating just minutes before they expired, regardless of the cause of death. Twilight Zone-ish. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-we-all-the-same-age-today-2018-these-things-add-up-to/822339.md?page=5)