Blog "about python 3"

[Chris Angelico]

On Sun, Jan 5, 2014 at 2:20 PM, Roy Smith <roy at panix.com> wrote:
> I've got a new sorting algorithm which is guaranteed to cut 10 seconds
> off the sorting time (i.e. $0.10 per package).  The problem is, it makes
> a mistake 1% of the time.

That's a valid line of argument in big business, these days, because
we've been conditioned to accept low quality. But there are places
where quality trumps all, and we're happy to pay for that. Allow me to
expound two examples.

1) Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1782010165/evertype-20

I bought this book a while ago. It's about the size of a typical
paperback. It arrived in a box too large for it on every dimension,
with absolutely no packaging. I complained. Clearly their algorithm
was: "Most stuff will get there in good enough shape, so people can't
be bothered complaining. And when they do complain, it's cheaper to
ship them another for free than to debate with them on chat." Because
that's what they did. Fortunately I bought the book for myself, not
for a gift, because the *replacement* arrived in another box of the
same size, with ... one little sausage for protection. That saved it
in one dimension out of three, so it arrived only slightly
used-looking instead of very used-looking. And this a brand new book.
When I complained the second time, I was basically told "any
replacement we ship you will be exactly the same". Thanks.

2) Bad Monkey Productions

http://kck.st/1bgG8Pl

The cheapest the book itself will be is $60, and the limited edition
early ones are more (I'm getting the gold level book, $200 for one of
the first 25 books, with special sauce). The people producing this are
absolutely committed to quality, as are the nearly 800 backers. If
this project is delayed slightly in order to ensure that we get
something fully awesome, I don't think there will be complaints. This
promises to be a beautiful book that'll be treasured for generations,
so quality's far FAR more important than the exact delivery date.

I don't think we'll ever see type #2 become universal, for the same
reason that people buy cheap Chinese imports in the supermarket rather
than something that costs five times as much from a specialist. The
expensive one might be better, but why bother? When the cheap one
breaks, you just get another. The expensive one might fail too, so why
take that risk?

But it's always a tradeoff, and there'll always be a few companies
around who offer the more expensive product. (We have a really high
quality cheese slicer. It's still the best I've seen, after something
like 20 years of usage.) Fast or right? It'd have to be really
*really* fast to justify not being right, unless the lack of rightness
is less than measurable (like representing time in nanoseconds -
anything smaller than that is unlikely to be measurable on most
computers).

ChrisA