Efficiency

Efficiency is something that gets thrown around. Though its a relatively intuitive concept, I thought that it would be useful to properly define it. After all, many decisions are made on the basis of “efficiency”. Worst case, it serves as a reference to link back to!

This post is meant to keep efficiency at a high level. Future posts will link back to it and ground it in our problem domain of software engineering.

At a high level, efficiency can be expressed as Impact / Cost. But what is Impact and what is Cost?

To define these, let’s begin by defining three other concepts

• Resources
• Actions
• Goals

1. Resources

Definition

Resources are the inputs required to achieve goals or perform actions. Below are some key categories of resources:

1. Wall Time: The total time available, independent of personal involvement.
2. Personal Time: Time that you personally need to spend on an activity.
3. Monetary Capital: Money or financial resources.
4. Social Capital: Trust, goodwill, and influence within a network.
5. Network Capital: Access to connections or groups that can provide opportunities.
6. Knowledge Capital: Skills, expertise, or information accumulated over time.
7. Other Resources: Any other assets, tangible or intangible, that can be leveraged.

Note: This list simplifies the concept of resources to represent things that can be used or gained.

Wall Time vs Personal Time

The difference can be illustrated with passive income. If I hold a 1 year CD at an annual rate of 5%, then I spent 1 year of wall time and 0 personal time.

Resource Decay

Resources decay over time if not actively maintained or utilized. For example:

• Knowledge Decay: Forgetting unused information or skills.
• Social Decay: Losing touch with connections over time.
• Monetary Inflation: Decreasing value of money due to external factors.

Decay is often ignored, but is important when prioritizing actions to preserve your resources.

2. Goals

Definition

A goal is a desired outcome or state in a multi-dimensional resource space. For simplicity, consider each axis representing a type of resource (e.g., monetary, social, or knowledge capital).

Example:

• Goal: “Be a millionaire by age 30”
• Key resources: Monetary capital (primary), knowledge and network capital (supportive).
• Bound by: Wall time (before age 30).

3. Actions

Definition

Actions are activities that consume resources to gain other resources or progress toward goals.

Action Cost

The resources consumed to perform an action.

Action Impact

The measurable distance an action brings you closer to a goal. Represented as a vector in a multi-dimensional resource space.

Cost: Not all Resources are Equal

Not all resources are equal; some are cheaper, easier to obtain, or simply have an abundance of.

4. Diagram

• Axes: Each axis represents a resource type.
• Goal Area: A bounded region indicating the desired resource state.
• Action Vector: A directional arrow showing progress from the current state toward the goal.

5. Efficiency

Action Efficiency

Goal Efficiency

Goal efficiency evaluates the total cost of achieving a goal. It considers the collective cost and impact of all actions leading to the goal.

• Difference from action efficiency: Goal efficiency aggregates all actions, highlighting the overall journey's effectiveness.

6. Improving Goal Efficiency

Strategies

1. Improve Accuracy (Direction) of Actions:

Avoid actions with negative impact or wasteful resource use.

Example: Conduct research before investing to avoid financial losses.

2. Optimize Commonly Used Actions:

Focus on improving efficiency for high-frequency actions that yield critical resources.

Example: Automate recurring tasks like scheduling or data processing.

3. Leverage Cheaper Resources:

Identify and prioritize actions that use abundant or easily renewable resources.

Example: Paying for a tool that’s $10/month to save 1 hour a day is often-times well-worth the investment.

7. Example

Goal: Publish a technical blog with 100,000 monthly readers in 1 year.

• Required Resources:
• Knowledge capital: Writing and technical expertise.
• Social capital: Building trust with an audience.
• Network capital: Collaborations for content promotion.
• Actions:
• Write weekly posts (cost: personal time, knowledge capital).
• Promote posts on social media (cost: personal time, social capital).
• Engage with readers through comments (cost: personal time).
• Goal Efficiency:
• Minimize cost: Use templates or AI tools for faster writing.
• Maximize impact: Focus on high-value topics with strong audience interest.

8. Conclusion

Efficiency is not just about doing things faster or cheaper; it’s about balancing trade-offs and maximizing value. By understanding resources, decay, and action efficiency, you can optimize your journey toward goals in a deliberate and measurable way.