3 ms·

// I just could not make him understand that 5 milliseconds of additional latency in the era where microseconds are an eternity is a disaster for a veritable sm

// I just could not make him understand that 5 milliseconds of additional latency in the era where microseconds are an eternity is a disaster for a veritable smorgasbord of upcoming projects. It just. Would. Not. Sink. In. Does this company do something where this latency would be noticeable? Can you give an example of business impact that would result from it? If you can, why don't you? If you can't, then sounds like it doesn't matter. The CTO didn't get to be the CTO by optimizing the irrelevant.

cgeier 3y ago
Ideally, estimate the business values in local currency (and be able to defend those estimates).
- xyzelement 3y ago
  I agree that's ideal but probably wouldn't expect a latency optimization expert to understand my business well enough to do that and that's fine. But I -would- expect them to say something on the level of: "this is the kinda latency that will prevent you from ever moving to a cloud desktop" or "at this level of latency, you are going to suffer X second delay every time you interact with a complex web app like Jira" or "you are an HFT firm and I know that your competitors are at about 1% of your latency." Then let your client decide if this is something that matters to them. Quite different than "wow the CTO is too dumb to understand my genius"
heyoni 3y ago
That was my exact reaction too. There’s a reason python and other “slow” languages are dominating. Very few industries require that kind speed, and even fewer require it at the cost of simplifying code or architecture.
girvo 3y ago
In my experience the CTO got to be CTO because they’re friends with the CEO, the board, etc, rather than their own technical ability being superior than the seniors/leads under them. And that goes for me too, when I was CTO. It’s a position, it doesn’t have any inherent guarantee of ability to avoid optimising the irrelevant: some will, some won’t.

cgeier 3y ago

Ideally, estimate the business values in local currency (and be able to defend those estimates).

xyzelement 3y ago
I agree that's ideal but probably wouldn't expect a latency optimization expert to understand my business well enough to do that and that's fine. But I -would- expect them to say something on the level of: "this is the kinda latency that will prevent you from ever moving to a cloud desktop" or "at this level of latency, you are going to suffer X second delay every time you interact with a complex web app like Jira" or "you are an HFT firm and I know that your competitors are at about 1% of your latency." Then let your client decide if this is something that matters to them. Quite different than "wow the CTO is too dumb to understand my genius"

heyoni 3y ago

That was my exact reaction too. There’s a reason python and other “slow” languages are dominating. Very few industries require that kind speed, and even fewer require it at the cost of simplifying code or architecture.

girvo 3y ago

In my experience the CTO got to be CTO because they’re friends with the CEO, the board, etc, rather than their own technical ability being superior than the seniors/leads under them. And that goes for me too, when I was CTO. It’s a position, it doesn’t have any inherent guarantee of ability to avoid optimising the irrelevant: some will, some won’t.