Thread

1. miffy900 · 1789683723 · focus · HN ↗

   I really wish people would stop saying N times smaller than something when making a comparison; that makes no sense - it's 1/9th (11.11%) the size. You don't get a smaller quantity by multiplying by a number greater than 1.0. You could instead reverse the subjects being compared - "the original model is 9x bigger than this new smaller, efficient model" or some such. That makes sense.

   I keep seeing this being used when people talk about efficiency or performance gains and it's just very unintuitive language.

   1. rpdillon · 1789691891 · focus · HN ↗

      Eh, when I read smaller with an integer multiplier, I mentally switch to the reciprocal. Easier than convincing the world not to use "9x smaller". Do you feel the same way about "9x faster"? What you're actually measuring is time, and "faster" is the reciprocal of time, similarly to "smaller" being the reciprocal of size.

      1. miffy900 · 1789695272 · focus · HN ↗

         yes, actually I do think the phrase 'N times faster' is sensible and logical

         if I say 'this Apple M5 chip is 3x faster' than this intel chip, it implies two things:

         - the run time of most operations that runs on it is now reduced (so one quantity is smaller)

         - but also: MORE WORK is being completed per unit of time compared to the intel chip (so this quantity is greater)

         So yes, a greater quantity is being measured in the apple chip compared to the intel when you say apple is N times faster. i guess this a quirk with the word 'faster' - it actually measures two things, time and work performed per unit of time. the word smaller just measures size.

         like, if I give a customer a cup of coffee one day, then give them a SMALLER cup of coffee the next day, for the same price, but declare "It's now 2X more space efficient!" i.e. it's now half the size, I'm certain the customer is gonna be pissed.

         1. atiedebee · 1789732458 · focus · HN ↗

            I feel like this becomes less clear if you're talking about "one-time" events. "Our website loads 2x faster now" doesn't mean that they are sending more data per second, and the user won't be doing more website loads. The website load time going from 1 second to 0.5 seconds is "2x faster" and I think that that is a very common way of communicating such performance increases too.

            1. fwip · 1789746234 · focus · HN ↗

               It could be sending more data per second if it's the result of a network upgrade at their datacenter. :)

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