1445: Efficiency

2014-11-10T22:45:49Z

Graham shanks: Added A/B testing paragraph

{{comic
| number = 1445
| date = November 10, 2014
| title = Efficiency
| image = efficiency.png
| titletext = I need an extension for my research project because I spent all month trying to figure out whether learning Dvorak would help me type it faster.
}}

==Explanation==
There are often multiple ways in which to deal with a problem or task. There may be a ''most efficient'' method, though sometimes the differences in efficiency between methods is only slight. People often try to save unnecessary work by first determining which is the "best" method - either the easiest or the most efficient. This can be a good approach, particularly where the savings prove to be significant. But it can also prove to be more time-consuming than just doing the task using one of the most obvious methods. The comic humorously exaggerates this.

One method of trying to determine the best way of performing a task is to perform {{w|A/B_testing|A/B testing}} where a trial is performed where the two strategies, A and B, are implemented and compared. Often the two strategies are simple to implement (for instance, two versions of a web page with different text and colours to determine which provides the better rate of click through) and therefore the amount of time required to implement the strategies (the "time cost") could easily be considerably less than the time to determine if the results are statistically significant.

The title text references a supposed incident in which [[Randall]] did not commence writing a research paper because he spent the entire assignment period deciding whether to learn an entirely different keyboard layout just to potentially be slightly more efficient in his typing speed. It refers to the {{w|Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard|Dvorak}} keyboard layout, an alternative to the most commonly accepted {{w|QWERTY}} layout. Some believe the Dvorak keyboard offers greater typing efficiency. Efficiency of the Dvorak keyboard layout was mentioned in [[561: Well]].

Another comic about spending too many resources on decisions that ultimately might not matter is [[309: Shopping Teams]]. Other comics that address similarly wasted time due to bad time management are [[974: The General Problem]], [[1205: Is It Worth the Time?]] and [[1319: Automation]].

==Transcript==
:[A graph titled Time Cost]
:Strategy A
:[Short line beside A]
:Strategy B
:[Slightly longer line beside B]
:Analyzing whether strategy A or B is more efficient
:[A much longer line next to this, about 10 times the length of B]
:The reason I am so inefficient
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1445: Efficiency