- RL on Transportation Theory and Algorithmitizing Mission Assignments: “I assume there has to be some administrative model used for staffing missions with some sort of optimization goal. ROI is likely coverts or activity in the field. I would guess the Church sociology department and the many leaders with business backgrounds have tried to look at the system and set something up. We are in a big data era, I’ve heard the Church has improved and adapted to online finding with drastic improvements in the past 5 years. Fun to think of business elders or APs assigned analytics support roles.” May 27, 15:50
- on Transportation Theory and Algorithmitizing Mission Assignments: “DaveW, I’d probably describe my mission a little higher on the inspiration spectrum, but never “only me, at this time and place, for this unique purpose”. A few interactions or situations felt cosmic, but I could have not gone, or gone elsewhere, or worked in some other way and still had such experiences. In my view, something can be utterly mundane and utterly miraculous/inspired at the same time. (Of course not all mundane things… many are just mundane, and many are destructive). So many times the meaningful impact doesn’t come from the predicted source (the talk, the formal lesson, etc.), but the brief conversation, the unplanned interaction, etc. And I don’t think those miraculous/inspired interactions are usually or necessarily the result of divine engineering, though they can be. Sometimes the difference can be *choosing* to see something as miraculous or inspired, and I don’t think this makes it any less authentic or powerful. The meaning that we make may be just as true as the meaning we receive. There’s a place for both. Maybe, upon further consideration, I would still not say “only me”, though I might say “specifically me, in this specific place, for this specific purpose”, but mostly as a description of experience, rather than a prescription of destiny. The power of a mission, or of service in general, is that it fosters one-to-one interactions where these “unanticipated” miracles can take place, all the more so because you are specifically talking to people about the big questions. I work in public education now, so I have a perhaps higher-than-average number of interactions with hundreds of youth and staff each day, in many instances thinking about big ideas. (Though again, the meaningful interactions are often not in the expected moments). I don’t presume what my impact may be (via mission or work or any service or any community), though I hope I have some, but I can think of lots of interactions that impact me. Sometimes as simple as a word choice or a double meaning in a casual conversation. As far as a journey or path of spiritual progress, they often boil down to a nudge or a point in the right direction. So I wouldn’t lament an algorithmic mission assignment for the mere fact of being algorithmic, but I would mourn the loss of the human-to-human interactions, even if many are mundane.” May 27, 12:33
- on Transportation Theory and Algorithmitizing Mission Assignments: “Although we do believe in inspiration for mission calls, there are real-world parameters that undoubtedly come into play, just as there are in ward callings. Not everyone who would make a great Gospel Doctrine or Relief Society teacher can be in those callings. Someone has to serve in the nursery or be a finance clerk. So need dictates a good percentage of the equation for all callings, even missionary assignments. Not everyone can serve in Hawaii.” May 27, 12:00
- on Transportation Theory and Algorithmitizing Mission Assignments: “MoPo: I assume something is in place (else why would they ask those questions?), but I don’t know how systematically quantitative is, or whether it’s just another thing taken int account qualitatively on an individual basis. REC911: “I would hope every question on the mission request form is there for a reason.” I would assume so. DaveW: I definitely think my mission call, marriage, and career paths were inspired, but outside of that there have been a lot of parts of my life where I feel like God took the approach in D&C 80:3, it doesn’t matter where you go, it’s all the same. But I’m sure which life elements require more fine-tuning varies a lot from person to person. Jonathan Green: Good point, plus at the mission president level they have more of a handle on the personalities involved, so it makes more sense to be more qualitative and less quantitative.” May 27, 11:30
- on Transportation Theory and Algorithmitizing Mission Assignments: “Assigning missionaries to missions seems like it would be algorithmically optimizable, but I’m more skeptical of in-mission assignments, since a successful outcome is much more difficult to quantify. Some surprising combinations can be highly successful, while others you’d expect to be a natural fit turn into disasters. You might have enough training data if you had all the records from all missionary companionships in history for AI to handle it, but then you’d need a long time to figure out how to set the temperature for inference. Probably a case for leaving human and divine beings in charge of the decision-making.” May 27, 09:36
- on Transportation Theory and Algorithmitizing Mission Assignments: “At every level of the church, from Apostle down to missionary, we hear stories of the unintuitive missionary assignment that proved miraculous in the end. The young missionary that speaks fluent Norwegian and is sent to Peru, but 22 months into his mission stumbles across a street in Peru that has 11 Norwegian families and they all join the church. I’m curious (I know I’m not going to find out from a few comments here) how many missionaries feel that they were sent to a specific mission, or mission president, or companion, or area for a specific purpose. I served for two years and never found that for myself. My mission president is a good man, and ran a more sane mission that many I’ve heard tale of, but we formed no special connection. I had a number of companions and we generally got along pretty well. A couple were harder, but we did our best to get along without huge issues. A couple were a lot more fun. And of course I met a ton of people, and a few of them I really got on well with. Statistically that is to be expected. Some of the people I loved the most were investigators that never joined the church, or inactive people that never set foot in the chapel one time while I was there. But that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t wonderful to know them. (Of course, they could be stake presidents down there telling stories about how I changed their life for all I know. But if they are, no one has told me about it. [And I am very findable online even if you only know my last name.]) I am willing to accept that there are missionary assignments that are divinely inspired. I am also willing to accept that many (most) are not, at least not in a specific “only this missionary in this place at this time” sort of way. I am content that with tens of thousands of missionaries being assigned every year, many of them are just people that need to fill open slots to keep the system going, and that I was one of them. If any miracle about my missionary assignment is to be found it is that I was given 4.5 months from when my call was issued until I reported to the MTC. This abnormally long period gave me time to start dating the girl that I would eventually marry. If I’d only had 8 weeks, I’m sure things would have been too busy to have time for any romance.” May 27, 09:13
- on Transportation Theory and Algorithmitizing Mission Assignments: “FWIW: I served a Spanish-language mission in the Paleolithic Age (1960s), and I didn’t have any kind of pre-call testing to determine whether I could potentially speak another language.” May 27, 09:03
- on Transportation Theory and Algorithmitizing Mission Assignments: “Fun stuff to think about! You left out the GA assigning that day being “off” (not feeling it)…maybe they dont assign when they are off?? I would hope every question on the mission request form is there for a reason. I think the most telling one is…:did your parents serve a mission and where? (not sure what questions are on the forms these days) I also think most who served felt they were sent to where God wanted them to go but is that God or that we were willing to go wherever we were sent to? Or both? In my case I prayed “mightily” to be sent to where I would predominantly teach Black people. This was the early 80’s and I felt a need to teach the people that we recently were rejecting. I was upset that I was called to Raleigh NC. =) When I boarded the Trailways bus to go to my first area from Raleigh to Fayetteville, I was thrilled and nervous, that I was the only white person on the bus! I actually thought there might be a black only bus and I was on the wrong bus! Then a white girl about my age got on and set next to me and it was all good. I prayed mightily for thanks on the way to Fayetteville. Trivia note: Back in the late 60s (not sure when it stopped) you were given a language aptitude test that you had to score good enough to serve in a foreign language mission.” May 27, 07:46
- on Transportation Theory and Algorithmitizing Mission Assignments: “There must be some algorithm or heuristics in place for broad sorting. But, if so, anyone who’s watched the system for any length of time will see enough baffling outcomes to suggest that there’s a strong need for optimization.” May 27, 07:34
- on Hymns Officially Rejected: “Kent, I LOVE that idea of somehow being able to experience other submissions. Maybe there is a way, if not officially through the Church…perhaps in other ways?” May 26, 22:13
