alt Hacker NewsThis article is dogshit.
The implied problem: People waste too much food at hotel breakfast buffets.
The work: Some people made a model (that itself is devoid of actual hotels, food, and people altogether, as well lacking validation) that let them wiggle some parameters and see if waste changed in that simulation.
The proposed solution: There isn't one. It's just dogshit.
We can learn roughly as much about how consumption and waste and profitability work in the real world by playing Roller Coaster Tycoon.
I was reading this thinking "wait, did anyone actually eat food? Is any of this real?", but sounds like we took away something similar. I don't get it. I was thinking even if the buffet were virtual, maybe they could give real people real plates, and a menu, and they'd load up from the virtual buffet, which would actually be people cooking for each order or similar. No signs that they did that, though.