Trigger my favorite reader who is named after a horse ridden by Roy Rogers writes:
This has nothing to do with current post, but here's something my coworkers don't want to hear: Why is it that when I enter the restroom and go into stall #3 (of 6) the next person comes in and enters either stall #2 or #4? There are other options. And yes, I washed my hands.
I am not a game theory expert but I think trigger has a flaw in his own stall strategy. He says he picks number 3 or letter C. Here is the proper stall selection order:
A) A is far from the door. Plus it only has one potential stall with which a creepy staller can sit in next to it. So if A is empty and B is empty he should pick A.F) If A or B are occupied but F and E are empty then he should pick F. Again only one potential neighbor, but closer to the door.
From there if you cannot grab either of those you should pick the one that has two openings next to you. So potentially C or D, if people are picking correctly. If the only choice is for you to be a D in between a C and an E, the only thing you can do is go in, but to save face, make a joke about how with the way cafeteria is cooking lately we may pretty soon need to bump up to 12 stalls. This should alleive your colleagues nerves that you are killing the safety stall.
Supplemental comments.
1. This assumes no handicapped stall. I am a huge handicapped stall fan, in fact I remember a specific one in college that would be a two bedroom apartment in Manhattan.
2. Why do people sit next to you? Not sure but a quick way to get them to stop, is as you are taking care of business in the stall, drop a few subscription reply cards for Hustler so they slide to the offending person. The other thing you can do is when you flush yell, "Take that Australia".
Hope it helps Trigger!