Comics about mathematics, science, and the student life.

Scaling Gains

A scientist tells a theorist and a businessperson about their latest work. "I just improved the algorithm's scaling from one polynomial to a slightly smaller one." The theorist replies, "Worth a paper." The businessperson shouts, "I'll give you a milli--wait. I'll get you a paper."

Actually, I just listened to a nice presentation by Jean-Gabriel Young who referred to a N2 algorithm as “bad”. So maybe my focus on theoretical computational complexity is just making me picky…