I think the point the parent was trying to make is that the concept is way more important than the specific notation. Someone that doesn't know Big O could stil

I think the point the parent was trying to make is that the concept is way more important than the specific notation. Someone that doesn't know Big O could still tell you why one algorithm would be better, it just might be slightly less succinct: "The execution time of algorithm A scales up with the number of items, while algoritm B's is constant." vs "The execution time of algorithm A is O(n), while algorithm B's is O(1)."