Multi Girl-Friends Management, a Graph Theory Approach

There is a weblog entry that Aubrey has been asking me to write for a while about multi girl friends management. She has always been curious about how I could go out with several girl friends at the same time (as it happened to me too often back when I was still young and innocent). So as a world wide premiere, this is how Graph Theory can help you manage your love life. Note that this entry is written from a boy's point of view, but it also works if we switch genders.

This entry comes without warranty, the author should not be held responsible for problems arising in your life if you follow the method hereby presented. 

The Prime Directive underlying the theory is that, after all, you are not a bad person and even though you would like a sustainable and scalable method to have as many partners as possible, you also want to minimize the number of times that you lie per unit of time.

So as a starting point you have one girl friend, we will call her GF1. This situation is represented by the following graph.

Then another girl, we will call her GF2, comes along. We will assume that GF1 and GF2 do not know each other and that GF2 doesn't ask any question, maybe because she already goes out with another guy (in such case, very often your relationship with GF2 is only based on sex, which makes things simpler). In that case you start going out with GF2 and never tell GF1 and GF2 about each other. The situation is now 

Then another girl, we will call her GF3, comes along. In this case we will assume that GF3 knows that you are already going out with GF1, and maybe GF3 and GF1 know each other. You tell GF3 that you really like her, but you don't want to hurt GF1 who still loves you. You turn GF3 into your new best friend, and at the same time you sleep with her. The fact that GF3 knows about you and GF1 will be represented by an arrow coming from GF3 to GF1 as follows 

Having GF3 knowing everything facilitates things. When you want a date with GF3 and GF1 asks questions, you have to lie to GF1, but when you want a date with GF1 you can tell GF3 the truth. This ensures that we work towards Prime Directive.

Then GF4_a comes along, and now a bit of analysis is needed. There are several School of Thoughts, but I recommend starting from GF1 and walking reverse of the arrows, you have to find the first girl that GF4_a doesn't know. We assume that GF4_a doesn't know GF1. In that case it depends how much of time would GF4_a want to spend time with you. If GF4_a wants to see you only once in a while you consider GF4_a as GF2, as follow

Now we consider GF4_b, who doesn't initially know GF1 but want to spend more time with you. In that case you have to tell GF4_b about GF1 but also say that you are actually in the process of splitting with GF1 (unless GF4_b doesn't care, maybe because GF4_b is married), In that case we have 

Now we consider GF4_c, who knows about GF1 and also (walking backward to the arrays) GF3. In that case you tell GF4_c about GF1 and GF3 and you plug GF4_c after GF3, as follows

So now here is the tricky part: GF4_c has to become your new best friend, and you can tell her secret things about GF3 to make her fell special. Note that the blue link relationship is transitive, so you should also tell GF4_c secrets about GF1.

Now comes GF5. We assume that starting from GF1, GF5 knows GF1 and GF3 but not GF4_c, in that case we plug GF5 as follows

Now, comes another little complication. GF3 wants to break up with you. You do not mind, but you do such that GF3 doesn't tell GF1 (otherwise GF1 will break up with you as well). There are various techniques to ensure that GF3 doesn't tell GF1 (I will cover this in another weblog entry...). We end up with 

Now comes yet another tricky part. You discover that GF4_c and GF5 love you more than you think, and they think that now that GF3 has gone, and that the long waited split with GF1 should be about to complete, you should have them as primary girl friend. They are thinking of moving over to your place.

What you need here, is a good reason to postpone their move. We introduce the "Too Much Work" node.

[TMW] allows you to stay with GF4_c and GF5 but without having them to bug you about moving over to your place. Note that now that TMW is activated you can move links around; for instance migrating the link between GF4_b and GF1 to GF4_b and [TMW].

Then we consider a new case by which GF6 comes along and happens to know both GF4_c and GF5. You would be tempted to do as follow

But this would work only if one single condition is true: GF6 is a bitch who actually does the same thing with her boy friends as follows (otherwise you unfortunately have to give up going out with GF6).

The reader will notice that nothing prevents some of GF6's boy friends to go out with some of your girl friends (as indicated above by the "go out with" link). As an additional event, you can also meet a new girl, GF7, who happens to be bisexual and have similar taste as yourself and GF6. Then you can easily end up in the very interesting following situation (^.^)

Note that in this last picture, the blue links inside GF7's world are from GF7's point of view, which is different from the blue linking in your world. For instance in GF7's world, GF6 doesn't know that GF5 is another girl friend of GF7, but in your world, GF6 knows that GF5 is another of your girl friends....

Note that GF7 is also more clever than you, because her graph has got less blue links and that she has used the "Too Much Work" node less often than you :-)