It is always a tough decision when to start a research project. The research question is often obvious for a long time but when should you go for it? Or continue waiting if somebody else is doing all this work and write a clever editorial that gets all attention? The New Scientist now reports a formal study on that problem.
Scott Kominers … derived a formula for the optimal time that you should wait for a tardy bus at each stop en route before giving up and walking on … The team found that the solution was surprisingly simple. When both options seem reasonably attractive, the formula advises you to choose the “lazy” option: wait at the first stop, no matter how frustrating … If you do choose to walk, you should make your decision before you start waiting.
I will give it a try tomorrow ;-) Unfortunately both options are not always reasonable attractive…