People have locked on to this idea that an order of magnitude is automatically base 10. That’s not the case. You need at least 3 data points, and a base (10 is common). Consider compiler implementations, there’s a law that suggests compiler technology doubles every 20 years (like Moore’s Law was transistor count every 18 months). So an order of magnitude improvement in a compiler could reasonably be set to doubling the performance of the output. Not just random ass zeroes.
It’s useful to think about your previous two zeros as well. If you develop a home-cooked app, you can simplify a lot.
So true. If you’ve spent years building 10,000-foot bridges, you’ll need a beginner’s mind when joining a company building 10-foot pedestrian bridges.
People have locked on to this idea that an order of magnitude is automatically base 10. That’s not the case. You need at least 3 data points, and a base (10 is common). Consider compiler implementations, there’s a law that suggests compiler technology doubles every 20 years (like Moore’s Law was transistor count every 18 months). So an order of magnitude improvement in a compiler could reasonably be set to doubling the performance of the output. Not just random ass zeroes.
An order of magnitude is always a factor of 10 unless the writer says “binary order of magnitude” or something similar.
Proebsting’s law was I think not originally based on actual measurements, but even so it seems to be about right or maybe optimistic.