{"id":233,"date":"2009-03-05T06:09:03","date_gmt":"2009-03-05T06:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/2009\/03\/05\/on_losing_things_and_hopefully_finding_them_again\/"},"modified":"2009-03-05T06:09:03","modified_gmt":"2009-03-05T06:09:03","slug":"on_losing_things_and_hopefully_finding_them_again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/2009\/03\/05\/on_losing_things_and_hopefully_finding_them_again\/","title":{"rendered":"On losing things, and hopefully finding them again"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the (many) things that annoy me is people, on finding something they’d lost, saying “It was in the last place I looked!”. Because you’ve found it, you’re going to stop looking, yes? So the last place you look, even if it’s the first place you look, is always<\/em> going to be where you find it. When Kate lost the key to the mailbox this morning I approached the situation with characteristic sang froid<\/em> (which admittedly involved a screwdriver, a hammer, and a trip to the hardware store, although sadly not to buy rawlplugs<\/a>): it was only the comment “it’ll be in the last place I look” that annoyed me.<\/p>\n

\nPeople don’t think<\/em> about what they’re saying.<\/p>\n

\nNow, that’s a bit of fun. But what’s more interesting is my observation that things tend to be found in the last possible<\/em> place they could be. The last place you look\u2014obviously\u2014but in the last place ever<\/em>. In other words, if you search your house for an item, starting at the most probable place and working down a list, the item will be in the least probable place. But conversely, if you look in the least likely place and end up in the most likely, guess where it will be? And sometimes you can look everywhere and still not find it, until you start over and find it in the first place you looked.<\/p>\n

\nWhat the world is crying out for is a full mathematical treatment of this phenomenon. Ideally the mechanics of the search process could be understood so that we can find whatever we lose with consummate ease (perhaps iFind<\/em> for the iPhone? Apple, are you listening?).<\/p>\n

\nApart from the mailbox key, I’ve lost a letter from Doc Beckett (with his email address on it, dammit) and a small camera tripod (and the old trick of buying a new one didn’t make the latter turn up. Puzzling). With Pickfords going through the house today I did, however, find a set of camera -> TV cables and a marble or two (but not the full complement), and a host of other inconsequentia that weren’t actually ‘lost’ as such, but nonetheless resulted in ‘oh, so that’s<\/em> where it got to’ moments. (Including, as I write this, a cold cup of coffee.)<\/p>\n

\nNearly all my material possessions are now in boxes, and I won’t see any of it for a couple of months. But ultimately, it’s only stuff0<\/a><\/sup>, and I’m now far more excited about getting to the UK and facing the new opportunities and challenges in London. <\/p>\n

\nWhat will I find there?<\/p>\n


\nfn0. Except my iMac. You get that when you pry it out of my cold, dead hands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the (many) things that annoy me is people, on finding something they’d lost, saying “It was in the last place I looked!”. Because you’ve found it, you’re going to stop looking, yes? So the last place you look, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}