4 ms·
> Last week we deployed an update to our React-Rails app that improved load time by 500% By "improve" they surely mean reduce. How can a measurement be reduced
by ciconia 10y ago
> Last week we deployed an update to our React-Rails app that improved load time by 500%
By "improve" they surely mean reduce. How can a measurement be reduced by 500%? If load time has decreased to one fifth, it would have been clearer to write "load time was reduced by 80%"?
- deoxxa 10y agoMaybe it takes 1s to load, but now happens 4s before you even think of opening the page?
- danmaz74 10y agoTechnically, we can say they increased load speed by 400%. But it would still sound very awkward.
- hrydgard 10y agoI guess the velocity measurement "amount of functionality loaded per second" did improve by 500%, a bit contrived though.
- amelius 10y ago"500%" is equivalent to "5x" So "improved by 500%" means "improved by a factor of 5". In the case of time, improving means reducing. So time got reduced by a factor of 5.
- mkesper 10y agoWhich is also wrong. "Improving speed by 100%" means being twice as fast. 100% + 500% = 600%. Better avoid it even if it sounds sooo much more than "double" or "five times".
- rco8786 10y agoImprove by itself doesn't imply a direction. It has to be inferred via context. Improving page load time by 500% is perfectly reasonable to say, the reader infers that improve means decrease in this case. Just as you can improve a golf score, or a marathon pace, or your BMI.