Office sort

[mindstalk]

This is mostly for the CS types:

Say you're in an office, and someone brings in a stack of 500 papers that needs to be sorted. How do you think they'll naturally approach the problem, and how as someone brimming with CS knowledge would you advise them to sort it?

Comments

[februaryfour]

Doug's answer: "Give it to the intern."
Doug's slightly-more-useful answer: "Probably a variation on Radix sort: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radix_sort"

[mindstalk]

Hmm, interesting. Binning certainly can have a role.

[cleverthylacine]

I would have no idea how to answer this unless I knew what type/s of papers they were and what/how many categories they needed to be sorted by; I do know that I infuriate other administrative assistants because I always insist upon finding the most efficient way to file things (i.e. the one that doesn't involve figuring out where things go as I go along, and doing all the sorting standing up in front of the file cabinet, because WHY?)

[mindstalk]

Ah, I was thinking simple ordering e.g. alphabetical by name of an unordered pile.

[cleverthylacine]

With 500 I'd probably start by sorting into 26 stacks just to save stress on my hands (500 pieces of paper is a ream, and hence heavy) but it might be faster just to do the thing where you order them as you go along. Or maybe just 5 stacks: A-E, F-J, K-O, P-T, U-Z.