half past nomad

A friend of mine asked me to Quantify my punctuality. Here’s my response.

Depends on the situation. I use a simple differential equation formula that I created.

It takes into account different situations, and variables. The main variables are:

1. Culture of where I’m going. If I’m going to an American event, I’m supposed to be on time. If I’m going to a mixed Desi event I want to try to arrive 37 minutes late. If it’s a total Hydro event, then I want to try to be 53.2 minutes late. If I’m going to an Afghani event, then I want to try to be somewhere between 9-16 minutes early. The better I know the people, the earlier I am.

2. If it’s a Masjid event, it’s a functional variable. If the event is Salat then it’s something in which I need to arrive about 3.7 min early. If it’s something that doesn’t involve Salat, then I need to arrive about 12.6 min late. For events in which I need to do Wudu, then I need a multiplier of 1.5 to that.

3. Culture of the city in which I’m in. I use the Malaki madhab and assume that the norms of the culture in which I’m in are acceptable. So if the city assumes that I’m going to be late then I need to subtract that from the other times. For Chicago I’m always an extra 43 minutes later. For Louisville it’s only 12 minutes. Bloomington is only 8. Hydrobad is an extra 73.9 minutes.

4. My role in the event. If I’m a participant then this variable is a 1. If I’m the man center of attention then I’m later by a log variable of y=ln x. The more vital I am, the later I am. For my wedding, I’m important so I come in late. If I’m the Khateeb I come in later, but it’s still acceptable. The Khateeb is supposed to come in at the 2nd Adhan, not the 1st Adhan so it’s acceptable.

5. There are other variables also. If I hate the event then I come in an extra 10.3 min later. If I have something else to do afterwards, then I come in -5.1 min later, so that I can leave earlier.

So in essence, I use EST. Engineering Standard Time. My lateness/earliness is based on maximizing my utility, and minimizing waste.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 18th, 2006 at 4:51 pm and is filed under General Lee.