An employee who was taking off from work between June 10 and June 13 shared his shock and confusion in a viral TikTok upon learning he would need to put in for four days off … despite there only being a three day difference between the 10th and 13th.
Ryan Roose ( @ryan_roose ) however, wasn’t alone. Even though there were plenty of people who explained just why it was four days and not three, it didn’t change the fact that several others were also left scratching their heads.
“OK, I’m over here trying to request off June 10th through 13th. That should be three days, or so I thought. Why is it, 10, 11, 12, 13, why is that four days?” he says, looking at the calendar, seemingly stumped that the 10th “counts.”
Am I dumb..?
Mathematically speaking, if you were to deduct 13 from 10, then we would be left with 3, correct? But counting works differently than subtraction, which could be the source of the confusion Ryan is feeling in his video.
“Like, isn’t 13 minus 10, 3? So why do I need four days off? Wait…” he says before the clip cuts to him staring at his computer screen seemingly not understanding that June 10th through the 13th is a four-day period.
“Dude, if my boss heard me having this conversation I’d be fired for being too stupid to do this job.”
The silence in between the bouts where he verbally expresses his thoughts permeates the video. He speaks again after looking off into the distance, contemplating this numerical debacle.
“Do you not include the 13 when you’re subtracting? 13, 12, 11, 10, but 13 minus 10 is 3?” he says, after counting on his fingers as he continues to look off to the side. One might say that if you listen hard enough, you can hear the coals burning in his head.
“If I had three apples and I gave you two, I would have one apple left. So are you not including one when you’re doing math?” he asks again as the video cuts out.