June 2023
Intermediate to advanced
356 pages
5h 32m
English
Content preview from How to Make Things Faster
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Chapter 37. The Problem with Optimizing Subsystems
Contrary to what might sound like common sense, you cannot optimize a system by optimizing each of its components in isolation. Troubles often hide in the interrelationships among a system’s components. Here’s a story of how looking at component metrics can cause you to lose attention on the overall goal you’re trying to achieve.
Patty wants to go to a conference. Here is her approved travel expense proposal. Each line item fits within the constraints documented in the Employee Handbook. Could you optimize it?
| Conference expenses | Amount | Description |
| Airfare | $1,250 | Airfare to/from conference city |
| Ground transportation | $60 | 2 taxi home/airport @ $30/ride |
| Rental car | $280 | 4 days @ $70/day |
| Hotel parking | $100 | 4 days @ $25/day |
| Conference parking | $100 | 4 days @ $25/day |
| Hotel | $540 | 4 nights @ $135/night |
| Meals, partial-day | $92 | 2 days @ $46/day |
| Meals, full-day | $122 | 2 days @ $61/day |
| Total | $2,544 |
The first thing I see is perhaps using a ride-share company instead of renting a car and paying for all the parking.
| Conference expenses | Amount | Description |
| Airfare | $1,250 | Airfare to/from conference city |
| Ground transportation | $60 | 2 taxi home/airport @ $30/ride |
| Uber | $240 | 4 days @ $60/day |
| Hotel | $540 | 4 nights @ $135/night |
| Meals, partial-day | $92 | 2 days @ $46/day |
| Meals, full-day | $122 | 2 days @ $61/day ... |
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
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I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.