Tag: efficiency

What’s in a word?

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The winding down seems to take longer than the winding up. I’m trying to finish my Language Insufficiency Hypothesis manuscript, and I’m hung up on word choices. I’ve shared this chart before. My conundrum is the name of the Y-axis.

I’ve been calling it Language Effectiveness, but I’ve been losing sleep. Rather than effectiveness, should it rather be efficiency or efficacy? These are all near-synonyms, but they have nuanced differences, so I turned to ChatGPT.

The terms efficiency, efficacy, and effectiveness are often used interchangeably but have distinct meanings, especially in professional, scientific, and practical contexts. Here is a breakdown of their differences:

Efficiency

  • Definition: The ability to achieve a desired result with minimal waste of resources (time, money, energy, materials).
  • Focus: Resource utilisation.
  • Key Question: How well are resources being used to achieve the goal?
  • Example: A fuel-efficient car travels further on less petrol, minimising waste.

In short, efficiency measures how economically resources are used to accomplish a task.

Efficacy

  • Definition: The capacity to produce the desired result under ideal conditions.
  • Focus: Capability and potential.
  • Key Question: Does it work as intended when tested in controlled settings?
  • Example: A new medication shows high efficacy in clinical trials, curing 95% of patients in controlled environments.

In short, efficacy refers to the theoretical or tested success of an intervention under optimal conditions.

Effectiveness

  • Definition: The degree to which something produces the desired result in real-world conditions.
  • Focus: Practical success.
  • Key Question: Does it work in everyday use or the real world?
  • Example: A medication might be effective in treating 80% of patients in a hospital, accounting for factors like adherence and side effects.

In short, effectiveness measures how well something performs when applied practically, outside idealised settings.

Comparison

  • Efficiency concerns how something is done (minimal resource use).
  • Efficacy assesses if it can be done successfully (ideal conditions).
  • Effectiveness evaluates how well it works in real situations (practical application).

Think of a machine:

  • Its efficacy is its ability to perform a task perfectly when running in optimal conditions.
  • Its efficiency is how little energy or resources it uses while running.
  • Its effectiveness is how well it performs the task in a chaotic, real-world factory.

Interestingly, this was a helpful inquiry. Notice that the chart has three curves. My first choice seems to capture the entire framework, but the other two better capture the curves themselves.

The lower curve reflects efficiency — though effectiveness given the real-world circumstances. The middle curve represents efficacy. This is because conditions are ideal if the speaker and listener are on the same page and the speaker is a skilled communicator. The chart illustrates that even in this perfect situation, language communication cannot reach one hundred per cent for abstract concepts. The top curve illustrates the cognitive phenomenon that makes some people believe they communicate at a higher level than they do. This is akin to the illusory superiority cognitive bias, where people tend to believe they are above average.

I’m leaning towards naming the bottom curve language effectiveness and the middle curve the language efficacy horizon. Please stand by.

NB: If the cover image makes no sense, it’s because I entered ‘efficiency effectiveness efficacy’ into Midjourney, and this was one of the images it spat out.

Dumocracy

Posted in modernism, perception, philosophy, politics, societyTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

I’m working on a new book—if by new I mean reengaging a book I started in 2022. I’m picking up where I left off with fresh eyes. As I’ve not had time to contribute much to this blog, I thought I’d share the preface as a work in progress. I may share additional subsections over time. Feel free to share any feedback in the comments section.

Preface

“The first step to recovery is to admit there’s a problem.” – Anonymous

Introduction

Imagine a world where the foundation of our governance, the system we hold as the pinnacle of fairness and equality, is fundamentally flawed. What if the mechanisms we trust to represent our voices are inherently incapable of delivering the justice and prosperity we seek? This book embarks on a provocative journey to challenge the sanctity of democracy, not with the intent to undermine its value but to question its effectiveness and expose the inherent limitations that have been overlooked for centuries.

This book is meant to be inclusive, though not necessarily comprehensive. Although focused heavily on a Western experience, particularly the United States, the insights and critiques apply globally.

Democracy feels like an anachronism awaiting a paradigm shift. As a product of the Enlightenment Age, democracy has been sacrosanct in the Western world for centuries. However, a quick glance at current results reveals dissonance. Not all is well. Despite typical defences such as entrenched political parties, low-information voters, rural-urban divides, gerrymandering, and illegal voting, this book sets out to show that democracy is fundamentally flawed. It doesn’t even work well on paper, almost inevitably yielding suboptimal results. When people are added to the equation, it just gets worse.

In this book, we’ll discuss inherent challenges to democracy. The main premises are:

  • In theory, democracy is not mathematically tenable. It always leads to suboptimal solutions with mediocre results. [1]
  • In practice, human nature and cognitive limitations exacerbate the execution of democracy from the perspective of voters and representatives. [2]

We’ll explore democracy from its beginnings and various forms across time, history, scale, and scope. We’ll investigate the impacts of imperfect information, human rationalities, emotional triggers, and cognitive limitations and biases of the general populace. We’ll survey the continents and look at ancient Mesopotamia, India, the Polynesian islands, and beyond.

This book aims to spark critical thinking and dialogue about the efficacy of democracy, encouraging readers to question widely held assumptions and consider the need for potential reforms or alternative governance models. Through this examination, the book hopes to inspire new ideas and solutions that can address the complexities and challenges inherent in democratic systems.

[1] Arrow, 1951; Sen, 1970

[2] Kahneman, 2011; Tversky & Kahneman, 1974