Songs without Words

In life, there are many problems that are much more difficult to solve than ones on, say, a problem set.  However, the mind is the machine that has the routines designed to solve these problems during difficult situations, and it is hopefully activated, rather than deactivated, when one is under stress.

Here I discuss my solution to the following problem, which will play out tonight.  I’m writing this as a “preview,” such that I can come back here tonight and evaluate the accuracy of my predictions.

The problem is in my schedule, recorded in my memory as this:

7.00p – 8.00p: Chamber music coaching rehearsal

7.30p – 9.00p: BE-BMES General Body Meeting

Now, this on the surface is simply a scheduling error, and the natural action would be to reschedule one, the other, or, alternatively, be late to one and/or leave early from the other.

Unfortunately, it is not quite that simple.  There are many factors to take into consideration, especially (1) the convenience of other people, (2) one’s honor and duty, (3) one’s personal ambition (namely, not pissing off friends and colleagues), (4) practicality.  I am taking any irrational elements and placing them here as though they were rational elements.

Here are the details that I pulled up for reference:

Chamber Music – location is 4-160, first rehearsal, this is for a grade, the normal coach will not be here, someone said that the substitute coach will only coach for 30 minutes, group is a trio, supposed to rehearse on our own from 6.00p – 7.00p

Therefore, I need to make a good impression on the first rehearsal – leaving early by more than 5 or 10 minutes is not a good option.  So, I must assess the GBM as well.

BE-BMES GBM – location is 4-370, first major meeting of the year, first 30 minutes of meeting will be officer introductions, I am co-VP, I am ordering pizza for the event, I am using my credit card to order the pizza for this event, pizza is supposed to arrive at 7:15, there is another VP, the second half of the meeting is a presentation that I have already seen twice, it is partially my fault that we are in 4-370.

So, due to duty as an officer, I should be there for the first 30 minutes of the meeting.  It is also necessary due to honor to be there so as not to shy away from the responsibility of causing the room problem.  In addition, the pizza must be signed off by me, since it’s my credit card.  7:15 plants itself right in the middle of the chamber music rehearsal.

Okay, so now “the status quo” will not work – I cannot just proceed from one event to the other without changing anything.

Here are two more options that raise themselves:

1.  Move an event.  Only the chamber music rehearsal is moveable.  Other times to move to are 5 pm and 6 pm.  5.00p-6.00p is reserved for “moving drinks with other co-VP for BE-BMES” and 6.00p-7.00p is for warm-up rehearsal.  However, the 5pm group already switched with us earlier because 7pm was a bad time.  So I can only switch with the 6pm group.  However, the 6pm group is large and signed up first, opting for the 6pm slot out of the choice of the three.  In addition, it is a group of 6 members, including the best players in the school.  It would be highly inconvenient to switch all 6 of them to a worse time to accommodate one person to a better time.

We remove this option.

2.  Change the pizza time.  Pizza is best ordered 10-15 minutes before an event as a strong scheduling item.  “Strength” is the flexibility of a scheduling option: basically, a strong planning is robust and resilient against change; a weak planning is easily toppled over by an unexpected event.  Pizza needs to be ordered early enough to allow for the delivery person being late, the order being wrong, or the order not coming at all.  However, it must not be so early that the food gets cold or hard.

However, it may be possible to maintain the pizza warmth by stacking all pizzas in one big stack.  This blocks the largest heat-losing surface of all but one of the pizzas and makes it such that each pizza heats the one above it.  This may permit pizza to be ordered up to 30 minutes in advance.

One option is to call upon the other co-VP to order the pizzas.  However, she states that she does not like the phone very much, and also that she has never ordered from this place before.  In her shoes, I would also not want to make the call.

In addition, the credit card is an issue: this is a large order.  Here are the principles of vaguely-defined binary options as based on “The Apology” by Plato:

1. Between one that is known to work and one that is unknown, select the one that is known to work (conservative principle)

2. Between one that is known to not work and one that is unknown, select the unknown (risk-taking principle)

It is known that my credit card still has enough capacity for this order.  It is unknown of hers does.  Therefore, out of consideration of her (stipulation 1) and due to the conservative principle stated above, I must be the one to order the pizza.

Then, the pizza must be rescheduled to 6:55p.  4-160 to 4-370 is a distance of 2 flights of stairs.  I can carry up to 6 pizzas at once; more pizzas can be carried, but a stack taller than 6 risks toppling.  There are 11 pizzas, 2 salads, and rolls.  A minimum of 2 trips must be made unless the delivery person helps me out – 50% chance of that occurring, based on past experience.  To make a strong scheduling choice, I must choose 6:55p and not 7:00p, in the event that I do not receive any help.

Now, the last round is the actual “anticipation” of the events:

6p-6:50p: rehearsal

6:50p-7:00p: paying for and moving pizzas into room, and stacking them to preserve heat

7:00p-7:50p: chamber music rehearsal.  One ordinarily ends at 7:55, in any case.
7:50p-9:10p: BMES meeting.  It is known from past experience that this meeting tends to start 10-15 minutes late due to people streaming in late.  So, I should only be around 5 to 10 minutes late to this event.

Overall penalties:

– The pizza may be left unattended for 10 minutes

– The pizza may cool down somewhat

– Coach may not be happy about me leaving 5 minutes before the normal end of rehearsal

– There is a 50% chance that I will be called upon to introduce myself before the time I get to the GBM.

Mitigation of penalties:

– Room is reserved starting at 7.00p.  A sign on the door will make it seem as though the event is already in progress, deterring pizza thieves.

– I will send an e-mail to the officers alerting them to my lateness so that they might call my introduction later, or at least know where I am.

Evaluation of solution:
Solutions averts the minimum problem of food not being available due to my absence to sign the receipt.

Solution selects the convenience of 7 people over personal honor of timeliness.  However, the timeliness factor is expected to be only 15-20 minutes.

What do you think?  Did my mind do a decent job of solving the problem, or is it way off the mark?