Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Ben Franklin, Take That!
Many kids are, or at least all of my parents' kids were, tortured with some of the sayings of Benjamin Franklin. "A penny saved is a penny earned." Or, the one I hated the most, "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." Why my parents wanted me to go to bed so early is understandable now that I have children, but why they wanted to torture me by getting me up early remains a mystery. I very un-cleverly made up the saying, "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man weak, poor, and dumb." Even as a kid, I knew it was completely lacking in decent poetic meter. I'd miserably repeat this to myself when being sent to bed by my parents quoting good old Ben. I still think it when getting up at the crack of dawn to get my children off to school.
What I didn't know back then was the rules of logic! If A implies B, then the only other thing you know is that not B implies not A. It is incorrect to infer that B implies A, or that not A implies not B. If going to bed and arising early makes you healthy, wealthy, and wise, it does not logically follow that staying up late or sleeping in will prevent you from being healthy, wealthy, or wise. Nor does it follow that failing to be healthy, wealthy, or wise is caused by not going to bed early enough or sleeping in a bit too late. In fact, the only thing you can deduce from Ben's truism (note flagrant assumption there) is that if you are not healthy, wealthy, and wise, then you are not one who is early to bed and early to rise, which is not to imply that the latter caused the former.
So kids, remember your logic the next time your parents pull out the old Ben Franklin quotes. A penny spent can be either earned or unearned, so they have nothing to do with each other. An earned penny is not necessarily saved, but can be either saved or spent. However, an unearned penny cannot be saved, which sounds so stupid that we can conclude that Ben Franklin was mistaken on at least this one point.
I would also question the wisdom of anyone who regularly gets up too early while they are still sleepy. That can be unhealthy.
Many kids are, or at least all of my parents' kids were, tortured with some of the sayings of Benjamin Franklin. "A penny saved is a penny earned." Or, the one I hated the most, "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." Why my parents wanted me to go to bed so early is understandable now that I have children, but why they wanted to torture me by getting me up early remains a mystery. I very un-cleverly made up the saying, "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man weak, poor, and dumb." Even as a kid, I knew it was completely lacking in decent poetic meter. I'd miserably repeat this to myself when being sent to bed by my parents quoting good old Ben. I still think it when getting up at the crack of dawn to get my children off to school.
What I didn't know back then was the rules of logic! If A implies B, then the only other thing you know is that not B implies not A. It is incorrect to infer that B implies A, or that not A implies not B. If going to bed and arising early makes you healthy, wealthy, and wise, it does not logically follow that staying up late or sleeping in will prevent you from being healthy, wealthy, or wise. Nor does it follow that failing to be healthy, wealthy, or wise is caused by not going to bed early enough or sleeping in a bit too late. In fact, the only thing you can deduce from Ben's truism (note flagrant assumption there) is that if you are not healthy, wealthy, and wise, then you are not one who is early to bed and early to rise, which is not to imply that the latter caused the former.
So kids, remember your logic the next time your parents pull out the old Ben Franklin quotes. A penny spent can be either earned or unearned, so they have nothing to do with each other. An earned penny is not necessarily saved, but can be either saved or spent. However, an unearned penny cannot be saved, which sounds so stupid that we can conclude that Ben Franklin was mistaken on at least this one point.
I would also question the wisdom of anyone who regularly gets up too early while they are still sleepy. That can be unhealthy.
# posted by Jack @ 9:51 PM 
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Soooo funny. I laughed and forwarded this, which is what I do with all of your hilarious private, personal emails as well. :)
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