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Comment by adwn | Hacker News Reader

> "so if we make it execute in 0 seconds, does it mean you're going to make an infinite amount of money?"

I don't get it. Wouldn't going from 1 second to 0 seconds add the same amount of money to the yearly profit as going from 2 seconds to 1 second did? Namely, $1M.

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> I don't get it. Wouldn't going from 1 second to 0 seconds add the same amount of money to the yearly profit as going from 2 seconds to 1 second did? Namely, $1M

Of course the joke was silly. But perhaps I should have provided some context. We were making industrial automation software. This stuff runs in factories. Every saved second shrinks the manufacturing time of a part, leading to increase of the total factory output. When extrapolating to abusrd levels, zero time to manufacture means infinite output per factory (sans raw materials).

yeah it's one of those things that are funny to the people saying it because they don't yet realize it doesn't make sense. I bet they felt that later, in the hotel room, in the shower, probably with a bottle of scotch.

earlier in my career it'd be appealing to make jokes like that, or include a comment in an email. eventually you realize that people - especially "older" or those already a few years into their career - mostly don't want to joke around and just want to actually get the thing done you are meeting about.

Yikes. I hope to never need to work with such people

> I bet they felt that later, in the hotel room, in the shower, probably with a bottle of scotch.

Geez, life in my opinion is not so serious. It’s okay to say stupid things and not feel bad about it, as long as you are not trying to hurt anyone.

I bet they felt great and immediately forgot about this bad joke.

Their joke could have also been interpreted as sarcasm and when you’re going to be sarcastic you want to be doubly sure that you’re correct.

But I also concur with you that it is good to bring some levity to “serious” conversations!!

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/06/16/the-failure-state-of-...

Required reading for internet comedians.

Thanks for that! I miss old school blogs

Not in front of an executive of an important customer, it isn't. They are remarkably humorless about making money.

A process taking 0 seconds means that, in one year, it can be run 31540000 sec/0 sec = ∞ times, multiplying the profit by ∞.

Since when is the constraint "how many times can I run this thing"?

At least in theoretical computer science, often, but that's another matter entirely.

In principle, the reason that "every second saved here is worth $x" is because running the thing generates money, and saving time on it allows for running it more often.

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