Hello, and welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service.

We're your weekly guide to the numbers in the news and in life, and I'm Tim Harford.

I used to think I understood cues.

They stand alongside scones, strawberries and cream, and complaining about the weather,

on the list of things that British people love.

But the way we cue isn't something most of us ever really think about.

The first person in line gets served first, the person at the back gets served last, simple,

and fair.

However, a recent analysis from the University of Southern Denmark has completely dismissed

the way we normally wait in line.

Cue is a wonderful example of a waste of time.

That's one of the article's authors, Lars Peter Osterdahl.

The problem with the regular cue, where you serve those who arrive first, is that people

tend to arrive too early.

The traditional cue rewards people for showing up early, and in extreme cases, to get people

camping out overnight to be first in line.

But that's perverse.

We don't want people to have to cue overnight.

And in general, if we can only serve one person at a time, we don't want lots of people

showing up in a bunch.

But the regular first-come first-served cue encourages exactly that kind of bunching.

So what's the alternative?

...