Here is the Venn diagram that shows the correlation between the following set of numbers. A Venn diagram typically uses intersecting and non-intersecting circles (although other closed figures like squares may be used) to denote the relationship between sets. Note, by “properties” I mean “characteristics” or “features” and not “items owned”.A Venn diagram is a diagram that helps us visualize the logical relationship between sets and their elements and helps us solve examples based on these sets. This is why most people will see the original diagram and understand what is being described, because in fact it is a correct association but with the figure labeled a bit tersely.Īlso, the universe set (that name that appears on the lower right corner of the surrounding box) would more accurately be labeled “properties of people”. In other words, each circle doesn’t have to refer to people.įor example, the three circles can each have elements that represent, respectively, “properties of prostitutes”, “properties of doctors”, and “properties of TSA agents”.Īnd then we’d label these using short-hand: “prostitutes”, “doctors”, and “tsa agents” rather than using the more accurate longer text. Venn Diagrams cover sets of things, but a thing can be a “property of a thing” as well. Kudos to Plotkin for breaking it down…įiled Under: jokes, tsa, venn diagrams, your junkĮxcept that the original diagram was essentially correct. They say that if you have to deconstruct a joke, you’ve probably ruined it, but if that joke contains a Venn diagram, and that Venn diagram is wrong, but still becomes popular with people claiming it’s an accurate Venn diagram, suddenly that deconstruction can be a lot funnier than the original. Plotkin then goes on to do a few more diagrams and teach folks a bit about how Venn diagrams are supposed to work - which is totally worth checking out as well. So, if you wanted to create a Venn diagram that actually makes the same point (sorta) and does it without being the mess above, what would you do? Well, Plotkin comes to the rescue again with the following: I might quibble with that one a bit, seeing as not all TSA agents or doctors are necessarily paid to touch your junk (and I guess there could be a tiny subset of prostitutes who aren’t either, but I can’t imagine that’s a very large number), but still, the overall point is there. So if we were to draw the chart above to scale, there likely would be almost no overlap between any of the three circles.Īs Plotkin then points out, what the original creator of the diagram meant for the diagram to show, is that all three of those professions are paid to touch your junk - and thus a more accurate - but not at all funny nor understandable, version of the Venn diagram would be the following: You have to imagine that the set of “airport-guarding hookers with medical degrees,” is somewhat small. In other words, if those three original sets formed a Venn diagram like the one above, the real categorization would be as following: As he notes, the overlapping parts of circles on a Venn diagram are supposed to include both sets. Rich Skrenta points us to an absolutely hilarious deconstruction of the problems with this graphic and how it’s not actually an accurate Venn diagram at all written by Andrew Plotkin. Well, that is unless you actually understand what a Venn diagram is supposed to show. The image then got plenty of attention with links from a variety of much bigger sites that I’m not going to mention, and it seemed to get a good chuckle out of folks who have been following the whole TSA/junk touching situation. Recently on Reddit, a link to a “Venn diagram” about “people paid to touch your junk” got pretty popular (even though it was apparently a repeat post of one that didn’t get nearly as popular. Wed, Dec 29th 2010 11:37am - Mike Masnick
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