Probabilistic Alarm Clock

by Henry Farrell on January 24, 2007

Lifehacker “links to”:http://lifehacker.com/software/clock/download-of-the-day–the-procrastinators-clock-windowsmacweb-230632.php an invention that I’ve thought for years would be a good idea (I’m sure that plenty of other people have had the same thought). Many people have their clocks running a few minutes fast, to encourage them to leave earlier for appointments to get there on time etc etc. The problem with this is that if you’re half-way rational, you’ll correct for the error, making it useless. So the solution is to have a probabilistic clock, where the clock is fast, but you aren’t sure _how_ fast it is within a given and relatively short time range. Thus, you’re more likely to depart early for your appointments and get there on time (or a few minutes ahead, most probably, in many situations). This is exactly what some bloke “has programmed”:http://davidseah.com/archives/2007/01/17/a-chindogu-clock-for-procrastinators/, although it doesn’t appear that it has an alarm feature yet.