An algorithm for my monitor problem

The monitor problem

I ordered a new monitor for my dorm last week, and it arrived yesterday! But it’s 16 inches large, and I’m quite lazy to retrieve it from the mail center - so this morning, I hatched a plan to get some help bringing it back to my dorm.

Sally and David

I have two best friends, let’s call them Sally and David. I love both of them, but they hate each other. Sally bullies David whenever she sees him, but they tolerate each other for my sake and we sometimes hang out as a trio.

David and I have our Discrete Math class together today, and we usually get dinner together afterwards. Ideally, I would slip the question of coming to the mail center at dinner / on the way back to my dorm, and then David would be annoyed but agree to help carry it back. But I love Sally and miss hanging out with her, so I want to get dinner with her as well - more so than I want to hang out with David. But if I ask them both to dinner, I’m afraid to get into a situation where neither want to eat with me, and I have to carry the monitor back to the dorm myself.

An algorithmic solution

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def dinner_and_monitor():
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    dinner_with = ["David"]
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    david_is_helping = ask_david("can you help me pick up mail after discrete?")
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    if ask_sally("how about dinner?"):
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        if ask_sally("can david come too?"):
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            dinner_with.append("Sally")
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        else:
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            if david_is_helping:
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                if flip_coin():
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                    tell_sally("let's get dinner next time")
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                else: # after he's done helping with the monitor
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                    tell_david("let's get dinner next time")
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                    dinner_with.append("Sally")
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                    dinner_with.remove("David")
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            else:
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                tell_david("let's get dinner next time")
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                dinner_with.append("Sally")
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                dinner_with.remove("David")
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    return dinner_with, david_is_helping

Note: The morning of, what I wrote out was much scrappier than what you see above—but the guts remain the same.

The algorithm is as follows:

First, I ask David if he can help me pick up my monitor from the mail center after our Discrete Math class.

Then, I ask Sally if she’s free for dinner in general. If. she says no, my decision is uncomplicated and I defer to getting dinner with David.

If she agrees, I ask if David can join us. If yes, then life is good. If no, then if David agreed to help me carry my mail, I would flip a coin to see who to get dinner with between the two of them. If David said no to helping, I would defer to getting dinner with only Sally.

Conclusion?

Well, it ended up working in my favor.

Sally said yes to dinner, and so did David. David said he was going to Discrete, and also agreed to helping bring my monitor back after class. So I asked if Sally was okay with David joining us, and she said sure.

Kind of anticlimactic, but I’m happy. I got to eat dinner with my friends, and got help setting up my monitor. 😎