Efficiency is dangerous and slowing down makes life better

Post by r00fus » Fri, Aug 21, 2020, 6:19 PM UTC

milesskorpen wrote: post #52

Taek wrote: post #46

This comment thread is making me realize we don't have a good word to distinguish between efficiency as in "we only have 7 hospital beds because that's all we need on 99% of each day" and efficiency as in "we replaced steps X,Y,Z with just step X', because we found that X' could accomplish everything that XYZ could accomplish but it's faster, more accurate, and cheaper". One makes a tradeoff by reducing overheads and…

I don’t know if those two things are as different as you suggest. Multiple steps add redundancy, if you fail one step you can get much of the value from other steps. More steps are frequently added in response to edge cases. Could be a Chesterton’s Fence scenario Instead of bemoaning efficiency, it’d be interesting to reward/value redundancy and antifragility, at least at the system level. I think this could mean tru…

Post by mcguire » Fri, Aug 21, 2020, 6:21 PM UTC

jlarocco wrote: post #15

I think the article is drawing the wrong conclusions. In every example given, the problem isn't "too much efficiency", but failing to plan for unlikely situations. Making something inefficient doesn't magically increase preparedness.

Post by r00fus » Fri, Aug 21, 2020, 6:22 PM UTC

Xylakant wrote: post #8

ErikVandeWater wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this requires more thorough definition. Obviously you can be inefficient without being stable. E.g. I could drive my car at 5 miles an hour to work which would neither be efficient nor stable.

It certainly would be stable. A very moderate increase in speed would allow you to make good on a substantial delay for any kind of reason.

Post by Smaug123 » Fri, Aug 21, 2020, 6:22 PM UTC

Taek wrote: post #46

This comment thread is making me realize we don't have a good word to distinguish between efficiency as in "we only have 7 hospital beds because that's all we need on 99% of each day" and efficiency as in "we replaced steps X,Y,Z with just step X', because we found that X' could accomplish everything that XYZ could accomplish but it's faster, more accurate, and cheaper". One makes a tradeoff by reducing overheads and…

Post by throwaway_pdp09 » Fri, Aug 21, 2020, 6:23 PM UTC

Taek wrote: post #46

This comment thread is making me realize we don't have a good word to distinguish between efficiency as in "we only have 7 hospital beds because that's all we need on 99% of each day" and efficiency as in "we replaced steps X,Y,Z with just step X', because we found that X' could accomplish everything that XYZ could accomplish but it's faster, more accurate, and cheaper". One makes a tradeoff by reducing overheads and…