This is a nice little post, that explores a neat idea using a simple math model. I do stand by the idea, even if I remain confused about the limits about its applicability.
The post has received a mixed response. Some people loved it, and I have received some private messages from people thanking me for writing it. Others thought it was confused or confusing.
In hindisight, I think the choice of examples is not the best. I think a cleaner example of this problem would be from the perspective of a funder, who is trying to finance researchers to solve a concrete research problem. How many FTEs should it fund each year? This model gives a good answer.
Andrew Critch chimed in with an extension considering minizing effort spent on the average case instead of in the worst case, which I thought was very cool. I replied to it afterwards, taking his idea further.
One thing I love of this community is collaborative improvement. Receiving constructive feedback in posts is very useful, and I feel that happened here.
This is a nice little post, that explores a neat idea using a simple math model. I do stand by the idea, even if I remain confused about the limits about its applicability.
The post has received a mixed response. Some people loved it, and I have received some private messages from people thanking me for writing it. Others thought it was confused or confusing.
In hindisight, I think the choice of examples is not the best. I think a cleaner example of this problem would be from the perspective of a funder, who is trying to finance researchers to solve a concrete research problem. How many FTEs should it fund each year? This model gives a good answer.
Andrew Critch chimed in with an extension considering minizing effort spent on the average case instead of in the worst case, which I thought was very cool. I replied to it afterwards, taking his idea further.
One thing I love of this community is collaborative improvement. Receiving constructive feedback in posts is very useful, and I feel that happened here.