This reminded me of a keynote speech at the dynamical systems conference at Snobird a few years back about the limits of computational mathematics, i.e. the hum

This reminded me of a keynote speech at the dynamical systems conference at Snobird a few years back about the limits of computational mathematics, i.e. the human limits of asking the wrong question. The aged speaker was apparently a consultant for the British transportation authority; they wanted a model that would optimize their highway expenditure to put the money where it would do the most good along multiple criteria, time on the road, overall budget effects, safety, etc. The team spent a significant amount time getting all the dynamic pieces of the model to interact and then started running solutions. Strangely though, no matter what reasonable weights or parameters they threw at it, it always recommended pedestrian safety expenditure of zero. After a lot of puzzling they finally figured out what was going on. You see, a significant portion of the pedestrians on English crosswalks were aged pensioners. Since the model incorporated overall budget effects into its preferences, every dollar spent on pedestrian safety lead to the decreased risk of accidental death of net-revenue-drain individuals, i.e. little old ladies walking to the corner shop. So the models did an excellent job of solving the wrong problem, GIGO. Likewise, actual time spent from start to finish is most definitely not the same at perceived time from start to finish, with the second probably being to most important. Which, in case you didn't know, is why hotel elevators almost invariably have mirrors on either side of the door, you reflection gives you something to do other than thinking about how long your elevator is taking, a considerably cheaper solution than trying to solve the computational problem of maximal overall trip efficiency. That said I'm totally jealous they get paid to play with that problem. If I were there I'd be like the guys in the arm chairs from the Collins College advertisements doing the "dude, I can't believe we get paid to play games!"