[Coda]

On the flip side, I'm trying to figure out how to bring math to bear against my current problem: humans.

I designed, built, and maintain a piece of software responsible for bulk corporate travel booking. I'm the only full-time engineer on my team. (I have a couple other engineers I can call in for maintenance tasks, but I'm officially the project lead, unofficially the account manager, and effectively the architect. This part isn't really an awful; it's actually kind of an awesome, because I'm finding fulfillment in my work in a way I've never felt before, even though it's not all the kind of work I like too be doing. (I really am not a manager-type.)

We're sitting on two weeks of record-setting traffic into my system. There were a couple technological hiccups right at the beginning that I squashed pretty quickly. But it's still way more traffic than the company we contract to process hotel reservations is able to keep up with. And part of the reason the traffic is so high is because users aren't especially good at following instructions or being predictable or knowing what they want in advance.

So how do I make sure the instructions we send on to the travel agents are readable, sensible, and easy to follow?

Aaaaaaargh.