Public Toilet Probability Analysis :P

When I enter into a public toilet where there are multiple toilets, the first thought that runs through my mind is to somehow decide which one would be the least used & hence cleanest. Somehow, I feel really good when I have put my brain into some work and convinced myself that the one I used today or at the time was the least used one then.

I get this thought only when I have a choice meaning there are at least 2 available for me to choose and go in. There is no point thinking probabilities when all are filled or only one is available, right? You need to have an option to think probabilities.

So this is very much applicable to my office toilet which usually has many options no matter what time of the day you go and your mind is anyway very active. It is not as simple as going in and stepping in to the first one your mind thinks…off…that is mindless…

OK so here is how it goes…don’t ever go into the first accessible one…as that is pretty much the most that has been used because most people go into mindless toileting…and the probability of the first being occupied is much higher than any other…

Based on the above you should use the last one ….right? Not really…

Since most of the people would use sub-toilet#1 the next most used toilet would be the last one based on my theory….that when it comes to toilets…people don’t take the next one to the first if the first is full…they go and take the last…as they get that 5 seconds more to think more logical and get a little more mindful…so they would go to the last one and not the second 1….

We also have to consider… that there is a cleaner also…the guy who comes and cleans up the toilet might spend more time & effort on the first one than any other and the least on the last one…as he would get tired until he gets to the end. So with every next sub-toilet he enters…his effort reduces…

This would mean that the last toilet is the least cleaned so that goes out of question….

So how about some where in the middle….well that is what I do…cos there is a medium probability of its use when all are free…and the effort put in by the cleaner is moderate as well which is OK for me…as long as its not the worst…

Timings play a role as well…the best time to go to the toilet (…not that you can schedule it…) is when the cleaner is cleaning….just wait (if you can) and get into the toilet he just cleaned. It couldn’t get any better than that. The issue comes when he is not cleaning which is applicable for most of the day as you don’t know when was the last cleaning done….and maybe that he is just around the corner to come in and clean….of course you can refer to the cleaning sheet that is stuck on the door on the back of most toilets…but then people would say you are paranoid (not that you are not…by thinking all the above…)

So there it is people…UTP’s lessons in Public Toilet Probability Analysis…and in case you lost it in the middle of it all…other than the last one and the first one …I pretty much take a ‘mean’ (average) of all available…and take the most middle one available…

P.S. Don’t think it takes too long to compute all the above…time is short usually when you go to a toilet…and all the above is pretty much within a second or two…or 5 on the max…