[Verse 1] In my black t-shirt, chalk on my gloved hand, Room 117 Mountains right outside I draw two clean axes Price and quantity, sure But there’s a storm of hidden causes Beating on that door [Chorus] I need a ten-dimensional blackboard Where every little ripple has a place Where a curve is a wide open surface Rolling like a hillside through space But I’m stuck with this flat little window Just two names on the line I can trace Everything else that’s pushing on the picture Has to shove that whole curve to a new place [Verse 2] Students stare at the graph Lines straight as a fence “Hold everything else constant” But life never consents Rent in Boulder climbing Snow melts early this year All that pressure on the margins Never shows up clear [Chorus] I need a ten-dimensional blackboard Where every little ripple has a place Where a curve is a wide open surface Rolling like a hillside through space But I’m stuck with this flat little window Just two names on the line I can trace Everything else that’s pushing on the picture Has to shove that whole curve to a new place [Bridge] I see valleys, ridges Peaks I can’t explain Trade-offs twisting Like switchback lanes But here in this rectangle I wave my dusty glove “Treat all the rest as given” While the mountains shift the land [Chorus] I need a ten-dimensional blackboard Where every little ripple has a place Where a curve is a wide open surface Rolling like a hillside through space But I’m stuck with this flat little window Just two names on the line I can trace Everything else that’s pushing on the picture Has to shove that whole curve to a new place
