Monday, February 20, 2006

Seating games

Some discussion has emerged on the web today about the 'age-old' up versus down toilet seat question. Apparently, the economics is pretty clear on this: the 'do not do anything to the seat after use' rule is more efficient than the always down rule. See this link for an informal discussion and this one for a formal treatment.

For my part, I -- as a teenager -- was listening to talk radio one morning where this was raised as a very divisive issue. My reaction was that this appeared pretty trivial to generate such conflict and, moreover, could be easily avoided by establishing a habit early in life. It takes about 30 turns to make something into a habit and so I trained myself at any early age to put the seat down.

I can recommend my strategy for ensuring the moral high ground especially when I got in trouble for missing the point. I formed a habit of putting both seats down. Apparently, one would have been preferable.

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