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Just Make It Faster

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Re: Just Make It Faster

#21

Post by [deleted] »

pierrefar wrote: post #3
maeon3 wrote: post #2

If something is taking way too long, often times it shouldn't be made faster, it should be done differently. For example, it takes me 4 hours to get to work, just making the car faster isn't going to help. Maybe the solution is to take a plane, get a different job,work from home, or move closer to where you want to be.

Yep. What the post described as the final solution was bringing down the running time from 24hrs to 10min using straightforward optimisations. I would guess moving from 10min to 30sec would take doing it differently.

[deleted]

Re: Just Make It Faster

#22

Post by Jach »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #18
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #6

Am I wrong in thinking that most technical founders are full stack developers?

I'm thinking "Full stack developer" is about to start replacing "ninja rockstar" in job ads.

I'm okay with that, at least "Full stack developer" is a bit more descriptive.

Re: Just Make It Faster

#23

Post by j_baker »

pmiller2 wrote: post #16
protomyth wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A "full stack programmer" will be able to look at the whole and see what should be done differently, but a database performance person (not a generic DBA) will be bring a much deeper knowledge of that one area (just as a GPU programmer will know more about GPU optimization then the application developer). Sometimes you need that specialist to get you over the hump. An "inch deep and mile wide" sort of knowledge will…

It's been my experience that most of the time, you don't need "the fastest performance." You really only need things to be "fast enough." Though the dividing line between "too slow" and "fast enough" is pretty murky, it's obvious when you're firmly on one side or the other. In the article example, 24 hours is clearly too slow, while 10 minutes is clearly fast enough. Consider, too, that expert-level knowledge of the…

Wait a minute, who says that the specialist also can't do "fast enough"? And more to the point, how do you know that the "fast enough" solution is within the reach of the generalist or that the specialist can't figure it out sooner than the generalist can? I can't count the number of times I've spun my wheels on something for days and then brought the problem to an experienced database developer who figured it out in minutes.

Re: Just Make It Faster

#24

Post by binaryfinery »

maeon3 wrote: post #2

If something is taking way too long, often times it shouldn't be made faster, it should be done differently. For example, it takes me 4 hours to get to work, just making the car faster isn't going to help. Maybe the solution is to take a plane, get a different job,work from home, or move closer to where you want to be.

Which is just what the guy describes in his article. At least, thats how I read it. If you only hire people who only know about cars, you're fucked. You'd need someone who knows about a ton of different transport "technologies", and knows, say, that you can combine the technologies optimally, say taking a shuttle to the airport whereas the trolly station terminates two miles away and the cab rank is always empty.

Re: Just Make It Faster

#26

Post by binaryfinery »

Ain't nothing faster than 0. I've done games for 20 years. The best optimizations are figuring out how to avoid running the code in the first place. This is where full-stack programmers come in.

There seems to be a battle here between full-stackers and specialists, but if you think of a full-stacker as "an extremely experienced generalist", then I think there are plenty of "extremely experienced specialists" who fit that description too. That is to say, an extremely experienced "database optimizer" is going to know how the presentation layer hits the database and how the database hits the disc, and I expect they would know many different database technologies.

Re: Just Make It Faster

#27

Post by khafra »

j_baker wrote: post #23
pmiller2 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been my experience that most of the time, you don't need "the fastest performance." You really only need things to be "fast enough." Though the dividing line between "too slow" and "fast enough" is pretty murky, it's obvious when you're firmly on one side or the other. In the article example, 24 hours is clearly too slow, while 10 minutes is clearly fast enough. Consider, too, that expert-level knowledge of the…

Wait a minute, who says that the specialist also can't do "fast enough"? And more to the point, how do you know that the "fast enough" solution is within the reach of the generalist or that the specialist can't figure it out sooner than the generalist can? I can't count the number of times I've spun my wheels on something for days and then brought the problem to an experienced database developer who figured it out in…

I think his point is that there's usually a bottleneck somewhere, and unless the bottleneck lies within the specialist's realm of specialization, the generalist is in a better position to spot it.

Re: Just Make It Faster

#29

Post by j_baker »

khafra wrote: post #27
j_baker wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait a minute, who says that the specialist also can't do "fast enough"? And more to the point, how do you know that the "fast enough" solution is within the reach of the generalist or that the specialist can't figure it out sooner than the generalist can? I can't count the number of times I've spun my wheels on something for days and then brought the problem to an experienced database developer who figured it out in…

I think his point is that there's usually a bottleneck somewhere, and unless the bottleneck lies within the specialist's realm of specialization, the generalist is in a better position to spot it.

What are you trying say? That there are pros and cons behind the decision between specialization and generalization? That's crazy talk if ever I heard it.
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