dryer protocol

[eub]

I've always cleaned the dryer lint screen before each load, like the manufacturer says. In this apartment building's laundry room, I almost always find the screen already cleaned. People clean their own dryer lint.

Now this strikes me as socially responsible and morally upright. But I feel obliged to check beforehand anyway, because you never know, and if other people do too, well, it's consuming a bite extra of everyone's life to check before and clean after. Can I condone that? On the other hand, can I let concerns of efficiency disrupt this community of ethical behavior?

[Poll #24924]

Comments

[ssaiscps.livejournal.com]

I always clean it beforehand, because some people seem to have large masses of wet lint they want to dry, judging from the giant mats i find sometimes.

the correct answer is clearly some sort of online, machine-learning based algorithm. you could treat the problem like a one-armed bandit problem, where you are trying to determine the probability of success at the bandit, in the shortest amount of time. you'd have to assign costs to checking, cleaning, not-quite-dried clothes, and of course, the scourge of humanity, drier fires. And, I suppose, the cost of coming up with an algorithm.