Belatedly, I remembered a relevant tidbit of wisdom I once got from a math professor.
When a theorist comes up with a new algorithm, it’s not going to outperform existing algorithms used commercially in the “real world.” Not even if, in principle the new algorithm is more elegant or faster or whatever. Why? Because in the real world, you don’t just take a general-purpose algorithm off the page, you optimize the hell out of it. Engineers who work with airplanes will jimmy their algorithms to accommodate all the practical “common knowledge” about airplanes. A mere mathematician who doesn’t know anything about airplanes can’t compete with that.
If you’re a theorist trying to come up with a better general method your goal is to give evidence that your algorithm will do better than the existing one after you optimize the hell out of them equally.
Belatedly, I remembered a relevant tidbit of wisdom I once got from a math professor.
When a theorist comes up with a new algorithm, it’s not going to outperform existing algorithms used commercially in the “real world.” Not even if, in principle the new algorithm is more elegant or faster or whatever. Why? Because in the real world, you don’t just take a general-purpose algorithm off the page, you optimize the hell out of it. Engineers who work with airplanes will jimmy their algorithms to accommodate all the practical “common knowledge” about airplanes. A mere mathematician who doesn’t know anything about airplanes can’t compete with that.
If you’re a theorist trying to come up with a better general method your goal is to give evidence that your algorithm will do better than the existing one after you optimize the hell out of them equally.