Being a geek is time-consuming

[haggholm]

I am no mathematician, but I do have a weakness for tidy sums, graphs, plots, and charts—visualising numerical data is cool, even when the knowledge domain is domestic or tedious. Today, I sat down to estimate my property value to prepare for applying for renter’s insurance. The obvious way to do so is to create a spreadsheet where I can itemise my property and list estimates of replacement cost. Then, I realised, I could sort the data more neatly by adding a category (so my Computers category contains items like Desktop computer, Laptop computer, Monitors, and Misc. peripherals; Sports equipment has Bicycle, Gis + rashguards; and so on).

Up to that point I was being pretty reasonable and focused—all this is information I need, or information to help me sort the data in order to get an overview and see what I’m missing (and avoid duplication). But then…then I realised that I wanted to find out the total value of each category. And once I discovered that OpenOffice.org has a Subtotals feature and I could do so, of course, I had to chart the data. (Actually, it may have been the other way around.) Now I have not only an estimate of what I own, but also a pretty pie chart that tells me that (in terms of replacement cost, not depreciated current value) about 25% of my property consists of books (!), 40% computers and peripherals, 8% clothes, and 9% furniture.

Of course, my values may be way off; I need to go over stuff again (and maybe get a second opinion). But seriously, this is the sort of thing I can get caught up in and suddenly realise that, hey, I should have cooked supper an hour ago…