3 ms·

What is with that banner image? Time on the Y axis? Factor on the X? Some mythical line-fit of factor over time that doesn't match the data? Great article thou

What is with that banner image? Time on the Y axis? Factor on the X? Some mythical line-fit of factor over time that doesn't match the data? Great article though. Yuck.

daureg 6y ago
I felt the same about that picture, the original source is less pretty but much easier to read: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MatrixMultComplexity_svg.svg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MatrixMultComplexity...
black_puppydog 6y ago
Came here for exactly that. WTF?
1-more 6y ago
It made me think of the progression of men's 100m dash times. I was really hoping it would line up better. I think long jump might have been a better choice for a spurious correlation graph. https://imgur.com/a/5quyLWC https://imgur.com/a/5quyLWC
- 1-more 6y ago
  I think I cracked it: it lags about 30 years behind the long jump progression https://imgur.com/a/YHvXq7G https://imgur.com/a/YHvXq7G
ziddoap 6y ago
I definitely agree, but thinking about it I wonder if it was simply to get a "gut reaction" to the graphic - that things are getting better and we are reaching the limit of what is possible (in the context of matrix multiplication). It's easier to get that feeling at a glance when the graphic is increasing left-to-right. With normal conventions the graphic would be decreasing. Which of course, that's what it is doing (and the goal). But the "gut reaction" to a decreasing graph is "things are doing worse". The gut reaction to graph increasing is "things are doing better". I could be completely off-base, but that's the only reason I can think of to eschew normal axis conventions.
- MauranKilom 6y ago
  So put time on x axis and exponent on y, but make the exponent decrease from bottom to top. They've already reversed the x axis here, so they could've just done that for y instead.
  - ziddoap 6y ago
    Yep, that would be another option and perhaps a more suitable one to achieve the same effect -- assuming my guess as to "why" is even correct in the first place.
ur-whale 6y ago
>What is with that banner image? You beat me to it.

What is with that banner image? Time on the Y axis? Factor on the X? Some mythical line-fit of factor over time that doesn't match the data? Great article though. Yuck.

daureg 6y ago

I felt the same about that picture, the original source is less pretty but much easier to read: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MatrixMultComplexity_svg.svg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MatrixMultComplexity...

black_puppydog 6y ago

Came here for exactly that. WTF?

1-more 6y ago

It made me think of the progression of men's 100m dash times. I was really hoping it would line up better. I think long jump might have been a better choice for a spurious correlation graph. https://imgur.com/a/5quyLWC https://imgur.com/a/5quyLWC

1-more 6y ago
I think I cracked it: it lags about 30 years behind the long jump progression https://imgur.com/a/YHvXq7G https://imgur.com/a/YHvXq7G

ziddoap 6y ago

I definitely agree, but thinking about it I wonder if it was simply to get a "gut reaction" to the graphic - that things are getting better and we are reaching the limit of what is possible (in the context of matrix multiplication). It's easier to get that feeling at a glance when the graphic is increasing left-to-right. With normal conventions the graphic would be decreasing. Which of course, that's what it is doing (and the goal). But the "gut reaction" to a decreasing graph is "things are doing worse". The gut reaction to graph increasing is "things are doing better". I could be completely off-base, but that's the only reason I can think of to eschew normal axis conventions.

MauranKilom 6y ago
So put time on x axis and exponent on y, but make the exponent decrease from bottom to top. They've already reversed the x axis here, so they could've just done that for y instead.
- ziddoap 6y ago
  Yep, that would be another option and perhaps a more suitable one to achieve the same effect -- assuming my guess as to "why" is even correct in the first place.

ur-whale 6y ago

>What is with that banner image? You beat me to it.