[plt-scheme] Re: please help with generating random permutation

Would some OS-style approach to office fairness help here?


On Sep 13, 2009, at 5:35 AM, keydana at gmx.de wrote:

> Hi Thomas,
>
> I'm not so sure about the fairness. I think it's not always easy to  
> define what really IS fair in a given situation.
> Personally,  I would see fairness less in the line of  
> "uniformity" (everyone gets the same amount of every piece, whether  
> he likes a piece or not) than of  "to each according to his  
> needs" (not being a Marxist otherwise, this sentence I really like).
>
> For example in this situation, what I originally proposed was to  
> have everyone who wants state his preferences regarding weekdays  
> (with the amb operator I use, this would be easy to add). Up till  
> now, there was not much resonance for this, but perhaps it's because  
> people tend to assume they have similar preferences or needs - which  
> in my experience need not be true at all. E.g. in this example, I  
> would in fact prefer to be ALWAYS chosen on Mondays :-;
>
> Cheers,
> Sigrid
>
>
>
> Am 12.09.2009 um 21:37 schrieb Thomas Holubar:
>
>> Hi Sigrid!
>>
>>> thanks a lot, this helped me very much (both in understanding and in
>>> giving me the confidence to defend my code)!
>>
>> I'm sure you'll have plenty nice - and entertaining -  
>> discussions! ;-)
>>
>> So FWIW:
>> Your colleague likely complains that the schedule your program  
>> generates is not *fair*. You in turn claim it to be *random*. And  
>> since both of you are probably right there's little chance you'll  
>> eventually come to a satisfactory conclusion.
>>
>> Taking for granted that my understanding of fairness is compatible  
>> with yours (and your colleague's) then fairness and randomness are  
>> incompatible.
>>
>> YC explained this in more detail already.
>>
>> So, if you want happy colleagues make it fair, not random.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Thomas
>
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