Category: Algorithms

  • Premature Code Optimisation

    Premature Code Optimisation

    When trying to solve a complex technical problem, it’s easy to get caught up in concerns about performance before anything’s even running. I want to share a story about a time when I introduced what seemed a reasonable idea to solve a transformation problem, but ended up in the middle of a long-running debate about…

  • Reducing Uncertainty With Genetic Algorithms

    Reducing Uncertainty With Genetic Algorithms

    Recently, I needed to find a formula that predicted how often an event happens based on a percentage value. The challenge was to make sure the formula worked well for all reasonable inputs, without giving unrealistic results. In his book “How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business”, Douglas Hubbard explains how…