[alexpotato]

Atul Gawande, of Checkslist Manifesto [0] fame, has a great article about the Cheesecake Factory [1].

He mentions that that they have a model that can predict both guest numbers and revenue:

“We have forecasting models based on historical data—the trend of the past six weeks and also the trend of the previous year,” Gordon told me. “The predictability of the business has become astounding.” The company has even learned how to make adjustments for the weather or for scheduled events like playoff games that keep people at home."

And this was in 2012!

I highly recommend both the book and the article as both talk, in detail, about how to build systems even in very dynamic environments.

I can only imagine how accurate the models have gotten now.

0 - https://amzn.to/4y4Riot

1 - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/08/13/big-med