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Efficiency Is the Enemy

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Re: Efficiency Is the Enemy

#181

Post by jfim »

highfrequency wrote: post #162
mauvehaus wrote: post #41

And this is why you schedule flights in the morning: there's so damn little slack in the system that if things go wrong at 10:00 AM at O'Hare, flights for the whole rest of the day are screwed up owing to the cascading delays. At least in the morning the airlines have had the overnight to unsnarl the previous day's mess because of the reduced revenue traffic overnight and the corresponding slack that accrues as a hap…

The magnitude of the delayed flight effect is fairly small: flights at 3pm are only delayed by 10 mins more on average than 6am flights. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fly-early-arrive-on-tim...

It's been several years since I looked at the data, but if I remember correctly most flights actually arrive ahead of time. The median if I remember correctly is actually negative (ie. at least 50% of flights arrive ahead of time).

However, this means that there's a long tail of flights that get delayed an hour or more, which brings the average up. Not a good situation to be in if one has to make a late connection during the day.

Re: Efficiency Is the Enemy

#182

Post by pantalaimon »

periheli0n wrote: post #101
allenu wrote: post #79

Something that I've noticed recently is that in my work life, I'm finding there's more bureaucracy in what I do, mostly in the name of "efficiency". When you encounter a problem to solve, there's often a process already defined that is most efficient (or at least thought to be most efficient), when accomplishing tasks, there's a pre-defined way of laying out the tasks (i.e. tickets), updating them, reviewing them, an…

Reminds me of Neal Stephenson’s “Snow Crash”, where he described the ancient world being so stuck in a set of fixed algorithms for how to do things that made any progress impossible. Only the Babylonian Confusion fixed this deadlock by destroying the ability to communicate (and exchange algorithms). Highly recommended read.

Isaac Asimov describes a similar situation about the downfall of the Galactic Empire in „Foundations“

It's basically the fall of the Roman Empire, but set in the future and with a outpost at the edge of the galaxy to preserve some of the knowledge across the dark ages.

Re: Efficiency Is the Enemy

#183

Post by gherkinnn »

allenu wrote: post #79

Something that I've noticed recently is that in my work life, I'm finding there's more bureaucracy in what I do, mostly in the name of "efficiency". When you encounter a problem to solve, there's often a process already defined that is most efficient (or at least thought to be most efficient), when accomplishing tasks, there's a pre-defined way of laying out the tasks (i.e. tickets), updating them, reviewing them, an…

I recently heard a clever man argue (can’t remember who), that process does make things more efficient. Starting at chaos, the more things are defined, the more you get done.

Until it doesn’t, at which point the relation inverts and you eventually end up stagnant.

The problem is that because adding ever more processes worked so far, and now that you’ve hired process people, you continue adding more and more and ever more.

The process machine feeds itself.

Re: Efficiency Is the Enemy

#184

Post by swayvil »

We place more faith in authoritative ideology than personal judgment and observation. So when authority (be it boss, consensus, convention or propaganda) says "be more efficient" (or whatever), we do it. Despite any observed mountain of evidence to the contrary. And despite our feelings on the matter.

As a rule, that's people. Little goddamn robots.

Re: Efficiency Is the Enemy

#185

Post by seoaeu »

There are two subtly different kinds of efficiency:

1) How little input resources are used to produce a given amount of output. Tools that let you spend one hour to do a task instead of two fall in this category. As does growing twice as much wheat on a given plot of land.

2) What fraction of resources aren't used productively at all. The "slack" from the article, or wheat that gets grown but not eaten.

Improving the first kind of efficiency is usually a good thing. The second can also be positive, but only in moderation. If you try to reduce slack too much then you'll end up with systems that are brittle and have serious failure modes (like famine caused by wheat production being lower than expected)

Re: Efficiency Is the Enemy

#186

Post by thesuitonym »

seem_2211 wrote: post #57
jfim wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easier to prove that one "saved" the company money by removing a support position than to evaluate the amount of money wasted yearly by engineers having to buy paperclips and figuring out how to expense them in the horrible expensing software.

It’s a very human tendency: we can see the downside so obviously, but the upside is a lot harder to see. Open offices: another amazing example of enormous value destruction in the name of saving a little bit of money.

I never thought open offices were about cost savings, I always thought it was about someone reading that we spend too much time isolated and need more interaction or some such BS.

Re: Efficiency Is the Enemy

#187

Post by rocqua »

dsr_ wrote: post #97
seem_2211 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Phoning for anything is my favorite thing. Absolutely I want to talk to customer service. No I don’t want this automated (especially when I’m trying to get myself a slightly better deal). And I hate phone trees with a passion, just get me the operator now.

Phoning is my least favorite thing (well, except for in-person visits), but I also want a human on the other end of the line when I call. If I'm calling, it means I couldn't get the website to do the right thing for me.

Agreed. I detest calling, and will do all the automated website things I can to avoid it. When I do call, gimme a human.

Re: Efficiency Is the Enemy

#188

Post by alerighi »

seem_2211 wrote: post #31

We've replaced secretaries with software, and now we have people making $150k+ a year busy working on things that they should be paying someone $40k a year to handle.

Do really programmers in the US get all that money? I mean, I don't even get the money that a secretary gets... and in Europe, not in India

Re: Efficiency Is the Enemy

#189

Post by rocqua »

thesuitonym wrote: post #186
seem_2211 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a very human tendency: we can see the downside so obviously, but the upside is a lot harder to see. Open offices: another amazing example of enormous value destruction in the name of saving a little bit of money.

I never thought open offices were about cost savings, I always thought it was about someone reading that we spend too much time isolated and need more interaction or some such BS.

Open offices, especially with flexible seating, are a huge cost saving on real-estate. You need much less floor space, and much less interior walls. I think at my company, we are sticking with it despite arguments against, because it is just cheaper. The advent of more people working from home is going to mkae this even more attractive probably. :(

Re: Efficiency Is the Enemy

#190

Post by idiotsecant »

Laarlf wrote: post #142
throwaway6734 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Achieve what exactly? Where is china producing cutting edge tech? They've consistently failed at in house chip design and production over the last 50 years. Most major tech breakthroughs are still coming out of west plus japan and SK.

Comparably rapid growth of economy and political influence

At the cost of enormous damage to the health of Chinese citizens, the repression of Chinese minorities, and rampant destruction of Chinese ecology.

Make no mistake, China is just as deeply sick as the west, perhaps more so - it just manifests in different ways.

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