3 ms·
To offer a counterpoint, doing a basic calculation in your head is faster than reaching for a calculator - remembering 7*3=21 is faster than punching it in on a
by nice_byte 5y ago
To offer a counterpoint, doing a basic calculation in your head is faster than reaching for a calculator - remembering 7*3=21 is faster than punching it in on a keypad. It's the same with facts -- having some fact committed to your own local memory is much faster than searching a global computer network for it every time.
For somputer systems, the speed at which data can be accessed has a transformative effect on the algorithms that deal with it. I think this is the case for humans as well.
- ducharmdev 5y agoThe caveat here, of course, being that memory limitations require us to prioritize what information should be kept in memory vs in storage. Take LRU caches for example: it doesn't do us much good to devote that valuable memory space to information that isn't being recalled very often.