Lexington, MA – Our guest, who has appeared before on Close Up Radio, jokingly observes that the word “queueing” is a very rare word in the English language that has five vowels in a row. With such a fascination regarding queueing, he has earned the nickname “Dr. Queue”. In addition, he desires to share his fascination and expertise with the general public. This is the story of Richard Larson, a.k.a. “Dr Queue”.

Richard Larson has been an operations researcher for over five decades. His success in this area earned him the nickname “Dr. Queue”. “I have won all kinds of awards for my operations research over my decades of career,” Richard notes. In addition, he also describes himself as an “MIT Lifer.” In other words, besides being an alumnus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), starting at age 18 as a freshman, he also is a tenured professor at MIT.

Operations research is the world’s most important, invisible profession,” explains Richard.

According to Brittanica, operations research (OR) is the “application of scientific methods to the management and administration of organized military, governmental, commercial, and industrial processes.”

Queueing, which is a subset of operations research, is defined as the following according to Dictionary.com – “forming in a line while waiting.”

His knowledge and expertise have manifested itself in his most recent book, Model Thinking for Everyday Life: How to Make Smarter Decisions. Released in 2023, the book features eleven chapters, designed to take the reader through a journey of model thinking, operations research, and queueing.

For his upcoming show, Richard will discuss queueing – the physics of queueing and the psychology of queueing, which is addressed in his book.

“Queueing has been with us as long as there have been people on Earth,” Richard shares.

However, the modern inventor regarding the science and physics of queueing was established by Agner Krarup Erlang (A. K. Erlang), a Danish telephone engineer, in the year 1919. He also invented traffic engineering. Another notable individual is John D. C. Little, the inventor of Little’s Law. Focusing on the rate of queueing, Little’s Law has established the following mathematical formula.

L = λ × W

L = time-average number of customers in the system, in queue and in service

λ (lambda) = mean arrival rate of customers

W = mean time that a customer spends in the system, both in queue and in service

A friend of Richard’s once joked, “It may be Little, but it’s the law.”

Richard’s main specialty regards the psychology of queueing. “I became fascinated with the psychology of queueing,” Richard corroborates. He will discuss some applications regarding this aspect. This includes the drive-thru at Wendy’s and the mirrors next to elevators in high-rise buildings.

“Overall, I feel that the psychology of queueing is more important than the physics of queueing,” notes Richard.

Richard concludes about queueing by referring to a quote made by baseball great Yogi Berra – “No one goes there anymore, it’s too crowded.”

You may purchase Richard Larson’s most recent book Model Thinking for Everyday Life on Amazon