On Mon, Apr 19, 2021 at 5:09 PM Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> wrote:
> > A diversity of strategies with fallback behavior is sometimes the best
> > strategy. Don't underestimate the contribution of rare and seemingly
> > insignificant adverse events. Consider the lifecycle of the data over
>
> That is an intersting point --- we often focus on optimizing frequent
> operations, but preventing rare but expensive-in-aggregate events from
> happening is also useful.
Right. Similarly, we sometimes focus on adding an improvement,
overlooking more promising opportunities to subtract a disimprovement.
Apparently this is a well known tendency:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/our-brain-typically-overlooks-this-brilliant-problem-solving-strategy/
I believe that it's particularly important to consider subtractive
approaches with a complex system. This has sometimes worked well for
me as a conscious and deliberate strategy.
--
Peter Geoghegan
