How To Pick The Shortest Line
by Maria PopovaHow queueing theory and early 20th-century Dutch mathematics can help cut your wait time.
Do you ever feel like you have a special talent for picking the slowest-moving line at the store or at airport security despite your most calculated efforts to pick the speediest one? Relax, there’s no mystical curse at work. Let Bill Hammack, a.k.a. Engineer Guy, explain why it only seems like you’re destined for slowness and show you how to navigate the mechanisms of line efficiency like a pro, using queueing theory and the work of early 20th-century Danish mathematician Agner Erlang.
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