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(Globe and Mail)   A mathematician, a different kind of mathematician, and a statistician prove that being lazy is more efficient. Fred Thompson is vindicated   (theglobeandmail.com) divider line
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11345 clicks; posted to Main » on 24 Jan 2008 at 2:42 PM (15 years ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



83 Comments     (+0 »)


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klymen
2008-01-24 2:10:36 PM  
Being lazy is why we made all this crap.

/Lazy ftw
 
Asmor
2008-01-24 2:46:36 PM  
I wish my college offered an (undergraduate) course on game theory... it seems fascinating.
 
GBmanNC
2008-01-24 2:47:19 PM  
If you smoked marijuana you'd know this already.
 
ObscureNameHere
2008-01-24 2:47:46 PM  
Farkers know a thing or three about being lazy...
 
Mike Honcho
2008-01-24 2:48:18 PM  
I, for one, welcome our new lazy overlords and would like to remind them that as a trusted.....meh, I'm too lazy to finish.
 
King_Groovy
2008-01-24 2:48:40 PM  
that's a very cromulent headline, subby
 
TomServo24
2008-01-24 2:49:30 PM  
I can't help but read that headline in a Tom Brokaw voice.
 
imashelcha
2008-01-24 2:49:38 PM  
Though they lack a mathemagician.
 
udeng01
2008-01-24 2:50:00 PM  
I am the very model of a modern Major-General,
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral!
 
ima turkey
2008-01-24 2:50:39 PM  
I'm hungry, but to lazy to get up and make a sandwich. So I'll just suffer i guess.
 
Y2Jericho
2008-01-24 2:50:41 PM  
Ouch on the Fred Thompson joke. That cut. That cut deep.
 
jjorsett
2008-01-24 2:51:20 PM  
This study is only valid if buses arrive at random times. If you know the scheduled arrival times at each stop (even if they're off a bit), the distance to each stop, and the rate at which you walk, you'd know with a high probability whether the bus would pass you on your way between stops.
 
galileogalileo
2008-01-24 2:51:55 PM  
99% of the world's wealthiest 8% drink to an alarming excess

/didn't rtfa
 
Cyborg77
2008-01-24 2:52:12 PM  
You can bet it wasn't an exercise freak who invented power steering.

-Garfield
 
Algebrat [TotalFark]
2008-01-24 2:55:08 PM  
Asmor: I wish my college offered an (undergraduate) course on game theory... it seems fascinating.

fyi, this has very little to do with game theory. Also, they never take into account the fact that most people would sprint towards the nearest stop once they saw the bus a few blocks away.
 
goddamhippie
2008-01-24 2:55:16 PM  
OK, help. I know that line in the headline was stolen from somewhere. Any Farkers wanna remind me?
 
astromarmot
2008-01-24 2:55:25 PM  
Better yet...look at the farking schedule. If there's time have a sammich.
 
darkjezter
2008-01-24 2:56:15 PM  
Hail ants!

/I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.
 
Englebert Slaptyback
2008-01-24 2:56:29 PM  

ObscureNameHere

Farkers know a thing or three about being lazy...


Nah - they're happy with just the one.
 
goddamhippie
2008-01-24 2:57:26 PM  
Ah, Simpsons space episode. Damn.
 
gund
2008-01-24 2:57:29 PM  
Asmor: I wish my college offered an (undergraduate) course on game theory... it seems fascinating.

Except this isn't game theory. Or at least they didn't mention any game theory concepts in the article.

But yes it is fascinating.

Sounds more like queueing theory.
 
Malevolution
2008-01-24 2:57:29 PM  
FTA: Walking becomes the smarter option, though, if the distance to be travelled is less than a kilometre

I'm sure these three Americans spoke of "travelling" and "kilometres."
 
stevie1der
2008-01-24 2:57:47 PM  
Being lazy isn't always to your benefit though. Like the time I could have met Mr. T at the mall. The entire day I kept saying, 'I'll go a little later. I'll go a little later.' And then when I got there, they told me he'd just left. And when I asked the mall guy if he would ever come back again, he said he didn't know.
 
gund
2008-01-24 2:59:08 PM  
jjorsett: This study is only valid if buses arrive at random times. If you know the scheduled arrival times at each stop (even if they're off a bit), the distance to each stop, and the rate at which you walk, you'd know with a high probability whether the bus would pass you on your way between stops.

Unless you read the study, the article is light on details, and I don't know how you can tell they didn't take bus schedules into account. It can easily be incorporated into the probability they mention.
 
Snarfangel
2008-01-24 2:59:31 PM  
So the song should be

We didn't start the fire
We were simply snoozing
With some heavy boozing
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
So why try to fight it?

/My ode to laziness.
 
Cyborg77
2008-01-24 2:59:32 PM  
Malevolution: FTA: Walking becomes the smarter option, though, if the distance to be travelled is less than a kilometre

I'm sure these three Americans spoke of "travelling" and "kilometres."

I think the use of the word "walking" is what really gave it away.
 
OttoDog
2008-01-24 3:00:41 PM  
Efficiency experts always seek out the laziest employees in manufacturing. If they're doing enough to keep their jobs, yet viewed as lazy by their bosses/co-workers, they are, by definition, efficient.
 
jgabby
2008-01-24 3:01:45 PM  
But which is better for the environment? The bus will have to burn some extra fuel waiting for you to get on and off, and to carry your weight around for a while. Is the emissions impact of that fuel greater or less than the impact from the extra calories you burn to walk that distance?
 
DrumMonkey
2008-01-24 3:05:39 PM  
But what did they say to each other after they walked into the bar?
 
helix400
2008-01-24 3:05:43 PM  
I hereby dub them the Three Musketeers.
 
GoodyearPimp
2008-01-24 3:05:56 PM  
"Oh no, not another boring space launch. Change the channel. Change the channel!"
 
serial_crusher
2008-01-24 3:06:39 PM  
"I'm not that kind of magician. I'm a mathemagician.
 
serial_crusher
2008-01-24 3:07:18 PM  
imashelcha: Though they lack a mathemagician.

Ah, you beat me.
 
FilthandsmellphiaScum
2008-01-24 3:08:31 PM  
obviously, these people haven't needed to wait for a bus in the cold / snow / heavy rain, because your only ambition then is to get on the bus as soon as possible. And if you don't keep moving, you're going to get cold!
 
ultraholland
2008-01-24 3:11:39 PM  
Sure, you burn fewer calories doin jack shiat.

/drtfa
 
moof
2008-01-24 3:11:52 PM  
gund: Unless you read the study, the article is light on details, and I don't know how you can tell they didn't take bus schedules into account. It can easily be incorporated into the probability they mention.

"He expects that a bus
will arrive at the starting point at time t with probability p(t), independently distributed across t." "If p(t) has an integrable functional
form, we can solve for tw explicitly; for example, if p(t) = 1/tb, so that a bus is expected to
arrive by time tb, then we find"

It's not like the paper isn't linked from the article, geez..
 
FarkBench
2008-01-24 3:13:13 PM  
Ah, the science behind Office Space. Next up...cure for cancer.
 
Asmor
2008-01-24 3:16:34 PM  
Gund, Algebrat

Granted, I know basically nothing about game theory (we had some time at the end of what was basically a "survey" style course last semester and got a very brief lecture on it), but my understanding is that it's essentially the study of optimizing strategies. That would seem applicable here, since you're trying to decide if the optimal strategy is to stay and wait or hoof it.

Please feel free to correct me, though. Like I said, I know nothing about game theory.
 
Malevolution
2008-01-24 3:19:12 PM  
Cyborg77: I think the use of the word "walking" is what really gave it away.

[snicker]

Thanks for the laugh. :)
 
The Flexecutioner
2008-01-24 3:21:32 PM  
I DO declare!

farm3.static.flickr.comView Full Size


/junior does some good math
 
ArkyBeagle
2008-01-24 3:22:49 PM  
Asmor: I wish my college offered an (undergraduate) course on game theory... it seems fascinating.

Game theory blows. I'm not being snarky. It's like the Simplex method of linear programming or most other such mathematical toys - until you get *really* complicated with it, it just reinforces the thing you'd do anyway.

Effectively, you multiply matrices together (sometimes repeatedly) and interpret the result as an outcome of a "game".

When economists start throwing game theory at you, run.
 
Grunt2006
2008-01-24 3:23:34 PM  
still gut laughing over that headline... +1 subby
 
theguyinthe$4000suit
2008-01-24 3:23:58 PM  
That headlined embiggened us all.
 
jeremytodd
2008-01-24 3:27:33 PM  
since we're talking about game theory: i was in an AI class in college. all the students in the class wrote agents to play the iterated prisoner's dilemma (with a slight random twist). the twist was your choice (cooperate or defect) was sometimes (randomly) inverted.

i started off trying to use some of the machine learning concepts that we went over in class, but i just ended up with the deterministic strategy of tit-for-tat, but forgive 1 time if my choice was inverted.

it ended up winning handily, which is kind of disappointing since i really didn't use any of the AI concepts.

we wrote agents for another, less predictable, game and i ended up doing moderately well in that.
 
BitwiseShift
2008-01-24 3:28:32 PM  
The broken bus theory

If you see smoke in the direction of where the bus should come from, it's the bus on fire.

Corollary If you see smoke in the direction of where the bus should go, it's the bus on fire, and the next bus will pass you to get to the bus on fire.

The Worm Hole Gambit Two or more buses going the reverse of the route means that a worm hole has opened and your bus will never arrive.

Exception If you wait, the exact change you have for bus fare will be decreased by the smallest coins falling from your hand under the bus wheel.

Sam's Law of Tardy The penalty for lateness you can experience will dictate that whatever you choose will be the most detrimental.
 
GoodyearPimp
2008-01-24 3:28:52 PM  
That headlined embiggened us all.

A cromulent headline like that? Yes, sir.
 
ne2d
2008-01-24 3:30:27 PM  
Of course,
[image from hairyfishnuts.com too old to be available]
will get all the credit.
 
low.dose
2008-01-24 3:37:00 PM  
Lazy is most definitely the best rout to success.
 
Sharkface217
2008-01-24 3:38:14 PM  
I'm pretty lazy.
 
SaviorJay
2008-01-24 3:44:51 PM  
It's funny how little smart people do.
 
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