Hosedness

Being hosed is the quality of being inundated with work.

Metric

We propose a method by which the quantity of hosedness one possesses may be expressed as a function of the number n of o's used in "hosed".

1. For any score assigned to an item, scale its score by a multiplicative .8 for each contributing teammate or collaborator.
2. Let psets be the sum of the difficulties of the problem sets you have on your stack, where 1.5 is the difficulty of an average problem set due the next day.
   • Individual problem sets due the next day should be scaled between 1 and 2, where 1.5 is the difficulty of your average problem set for the semester. Thus we assume that as an MIT student you've arranged your classes to provide an adequate challenge, and account for the fact that an 18.01 problem set may be trivial for a senior but rather time-consuming for a freshman.
   • Most problem sets scale harmonically toward zero for each additional day you have to complete them. Thus a 1.5 problem set due in two days is worth .75 hosedness; due in three days, it is worth .5 hosedness.
   • 2.0 problem sets are those that are sufficiently difficult that having time on them doesn't make them significantly less scary (e.g. 18.725). These problem sets scale harmonically toward one for each additional day you have to complete them. Thus a 2.0 problem set due in two days is worth 1.5 hosedness; due in three days, it is worth 1.333 hosedness.
3. Let papers be the number of papers you have due the next day, plus 1/4 for each page of expected length you have yet to write.
   • Papers scale harmonically toward half their value for each day if they are due within the next week, or toward zero for each day if they are due in more than one week. Thus a 6-page paper due tomorrow is worth 2.5 hosedness if you haven't started on it or 2 hosedness if you've written 2 pages; it is worth 1.66 and 1.33 respectively if it is due in three days; it is worth .25 or .2 if it is due in 10 days.
4. Let projects...
5. Let presentations...
6. Let tests...
7. Let multiplier be 1.1^t, where t is the number of hours you've spent punting without any changes to the stack.

Your total hosedness, to be used as the number of o's in "hosed", is (multiplier)(psets + papers + projects + presentations + tests)^2. As a guideline, if this number if at least 10, it is time to start finding fast ways to remove items from your stack, presumably by punting them altogether or by asking for extensions.