I know the coffee thing is just an analogy to make his point, so there is not much point in arguing about it. But since I face this question every morning, I ca

I know the coffee thing is just an analogy to make his point, so there is not much point in arguing about it. But since I face this question every morning, I can't help but say what I think about, and it is not latency versus throughput. It's latency versus risk. For me it is tea, and not coffee. I have an automatic kettle that will bring the water to a desired temperature and then holds it there. I also have a small ceramic tea pot I brew tea in. I often rew 2 or 3 batches (I know which when I start). I heat the entire amount of water by default, even though that takes longer to initially heat. Sometimes I am in a hurry and want the tea sooner. Then I consider if I should heat a smaller amount of water to get started faster. I don't think I have ever done that though. The reason is risk. (1) Will it heat the water in time. The answer is yes it should, but that would be very bad if it didn't. Then my tea pot would cool down as I waited. I think that might be bad for the tea quality. To me this is an assymetric bet. (2) Will I even remember to put more water in the kettle. I am such a creature of habit. That would really mess up the tea pot temperature. (3) Will I even put the right amount of water in for the initial pot. That takes 2+ portions of water. One to preheat the tea pot, a small amount to rinse the tea, and then the portion to actually brew the tea. That would also be bad if I didn't have enough water. Granted, a number of those items are just because of habit/momentum. If I normally heated enough only for he first batch of tea, then I might be hesitant to heat all the water ahead of time. So for me it comes down to latency versus risk. I suspect this is a factor in "real world" decisions to. For what it is worth, when I write software, I would say I dive in sooner and start writing something like an MVP, along the lines ofwhat the author is saying. Admittedly I plan more features than I plan on writing for the first version, kind of like giving yourself a good leve when playing pool.