5 ms·

Is he a slow thinker, or does he just have high p50/p90 latency? If you treat the output of thinking as generating observations, marshalling evidence, drawing

Is he a slow thinker, or does he just have high p50/p90 latency? If you treat the output of thinking as generating observations, marshalling evidence, drawing connections (and so on), then thinking slowly really isn't anything to celebrate. A slow thinker takes a day to give you an answer that someone else could've given in 15 minutes. They have poor minimum latency and bad throughput. And don't forget scaling--some people will give you the same answer on day 3 they give you after 15 minutes, others benefit from throwing more resources (time) at the problem. Having met plenty of "slow thinkers" who are smarter than I am, they're not really slow, just higher latency. They take time, but they generate good ideas that someone else wouldn't have. And they build on their ideas over time.

jvanderbot 4y ago
I don't see any difference between taking time to answer being measure as latency or perceived slowness. You're saying he actually thinks fast but doesn't get around to thinking for a while?
- hyperpape 4y ago
  Take two people: Person 1 responds with the first thing that comes to mind. They have not considered alternatives. Person 2 considers a range of alternatives, and gives an answer. If person 2 takes longer, they’re not doing the same thing person 1 does, but slower. They’re doing more productive work, spread over a longer time. In various situations, I’d rather hear from person 1 or person 2. > You're saying he actually thinks fast but doesn't get around to thinking for a while? This is another possibility. If I just pause before speaking, I may be paying a fixed latency cost. I take 2 seconds to do what you do in 1 (100% overhead—shocking!), but I take 31 seconds to do what you do in 30 (~3% overhead, who cares?). If he really does think slowly, it means he takes a day to answer your question and gives you the answer someone else would give in 10 minutes. That’s bad.
boringg 4y ago
I think what you are saying is in a variety of circumstances a fast thoughtless answer is more desirable then a deliberate thoughtful answer. For those situations the individual who thinks fast but doesn't think through the consequences has an advantage. However if you are looking at answers in which you want a more deliberate thought the process the slow thinking answer is probably the individual who would be best suited. Latency doesn't change output it just refers to a time lag - I think in this case the output is significantly different. Think of it more as a model, one that spits out an answer on an already trained model vs one thats training a model and giving you an answer. The model that is training takes more effort/time.
- hyperpape 4y ago
  Not far off. The simplest version (honestly oversimplified, but it'll do) is to imagine a graph. Time to respond on the x axis, quality of response on the y-axis. Slowing down is just moving to the right. You take more time to deliver the same response. That would be bad. Lowering quality is just moving down. Same time, worse response. That would also be bad. What "slow (but deep) thinkers" do is move up and to the right. Better responses, delivered in more time. I don't want to call that "slow" though, it's just taking more time to do more valuable thinking.
ayewo 4y ago
The high latency before the OP could formulate a response instantly reminded me of L'esprit de l'escalier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27esprit_de_l%27escalier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27esprit_de_l%27escalier

jvanderbot 4y ago

I don't see any difference between taking time to answer being measure as latency or perceived slowness. You're saying he actually thinks fast but doesn't get around to thinking for a while?

hyperpape 4y ago
Take two people: Person 1 responds with the first thing that comes to mind. They have not considered alternatives. Person 2 considers a range of alternatives, and gives an answer. If person 2 takes longer, they’re not doing the same thing person 1 does, but slower. They’re doing more productive work, spread over a longer time. In various situations, I’d rather hear from person 1 or person 2. > You're saying he actually thinks fast but doesn't get around to thinking for a while? This is another possibility. If I just pause before speaking, I may be paying a fixed latency cost. I take 2 seconds to do what you do in 1 (100% overhead—shocking!), but I take 31 seconds to do what you do in 30 (~3% overhead, who cares?). If he really does think slowly, it means he takes a day to answer your question and gives you the answer someone else would give in 10 minutes. That’s bad.

boringg 4y ago

I think what you are saying is in a variety of circumstances a fast thoughtless answer is more desirable then a deliberate thoughtful answer. For those situations the individual who thinks fast but doesn't think through the consequences has an advantage. However if you are looking at answers in which you want a more deliberate thought the process the slow thinking answer is probably the individual who would be best suited. Latency doesn't change output it just refers to a time lag - I think in this case the output is significantly different. Think of it more as a model, one that spits out an answer on an already trained model vs one thats training a model and giving you an answer. The model that is training takes more effort/time.

hyperpape 4y ago
Not far off. The simplest version (honestly oversimplified, but it'll do) is to imagine a graph. Time to respond on the x axis, quality of response on the y-axis. Slowing down is just moving to the right. You take more time to deliver the same response. That would be bad. Lowering quality is just moving down. Same time, worse response. That would also be bad. What "slow (but deep) thinkers" do is move up and to the right. Better responses, delivered in more time. I don't want to call that "slow" though, it's just taking more time to do more valuable thinking.

ayewo 4y ago

The high latency before the OP could formulate a response instantly reminded me of L'esprit de l'escalier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27esprit_de_l%27escalier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27esprit_de_l%27escalier