[OT] Retreating from Iraq

[Benji Smith]

BCS wrote:
>> Sort everyone under you (directly or indirectly) by the number of
>> subordinates they have. Pick the subordinate with the most
>> subordinates and call the next man in line to them. remove every
>> subordinate down that chain of command and repeat.
>>
>> This assumes that the depth of command is more or less the same across
>> the board.
>>
> 
> This is based on the ssumption that the people with the most 
> subordinates need to get started first.

But consider this case...

I have two subordinates: Dirk and Deek. Dirk has only one subordinate of 
his own, but Deek has three. It seems like I should call Deek first.

But what if Dirk's single subordinate has twenty subordinates of his 
own, which Deek's subordinates are leaf-nodes? In that case, it makes a 
whole lot more sense to call Dirk first.

So it seems essential to implement a cost function for each branch of 
the tree. Something more elaborate than just counting each person's 
subordinates.

But a weighted-subtree function isn't the right approach either.

Consider this case (with JSON-y goodness):

A: {
    B: [ B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7, B8 ],
    C: {
       C1: [ C1a, C1b, C1c ],
       C2: [ C2a, C2b, C2c ]
    }
}

In this case, "A" has two subordinates: "B" and "C". If I calculate my 
cost function by summing the number of subordinates under each officer, 
"B" and "C" seem to have identical cost, since they have a total of 
eight subordinates each.

The cost of any soldier "s" can be calculated like this:

    1 + max(s.subordinateCount(), + s.mostExpensiveSubordinate())

Each officer should contact his subordinates in decreasing-cost order.

--benji