Stretching

Moving your own hours

The only lever either end controls, and the exact size of it.

Part six

8 notes in this part

Lengthening one end's working day by an hour brings exactly two more gaps into range. Not three, not a vague improvement — two.

Reference

Each additional hour buys exactly two more gaps, with no diminishing returns and no acceleration. Four hours buys eight gaps.

Reference

Shifting start and end together is not a change of shape. It is a change of gap, and it is the most effective lever in the record.

Analysis

The arithmetic is symmetric and the cost is not. What the numbers can settle is less than people want, and the rest is not about hours.

Analysis

Working in two blocks is the only move that reaches a gap of nine hours. It is also the only move that makes things worse everywhere else.

Analysis

Some gaps cannot be reached by any amount of lengthening. Beyond a point, the hours bought are hours nobody can use.

Analysis

With every lever pulled the record reaches a gap of eleven hours and leaves one hour there. This page says what remains beyond it.

Reference

The closing note. Everything here counts hours of simultaneous availability, which is one small fact about an arrangement.

Analysis