efficiency – Jonathan Frei https://jonathanfrei.com Based on a true story Mon, 24 Aug 2015 02:43:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.1 https://i0.wp.com/jonathanfrei.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/favicon-160x1601.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 efficiency – Jonathan Frei https://jonathanfrei.com 32 32 76405128 Cyborg Enhancements: Wheels and Pedals https://jonathanfrei.com/2015/08/cyborg-enhancements-wheels-and-pedals https://jonathanfrei.com/2015/08/cyborg-enhancements-wheels-and-pedals#respond Mon, 24 Aug 2015 02:43:03 +0000 https://jonathanfrei.com/?p=6477 The best technologies are the ones that enhance your natural abilities rather than replace them. These are the innovations that have historically had the biggest impact on what humanity can accomplish, and this is the factor to watch for when deciding what emerging technologies to get excited about. Sep Kamvar, writing about the power efficiencies of a human brain and body vs. that of a super computer, points out how energy efficient a car is compared to a person on a bike.

A midsized car gets a little over half a mile per kilocalorie of energy. A human walking gets 10 miles per kilocalorie. Even if we exclude the cost of the car, the cost of the road, and the cost of the infrastructure we build for fueling, walking is still 20 times as efficient as driving.

There does exist a vehicle that is more efficient than a human walking: a human on a bicycle. A human on a bicycle gets 25 miles per kilocalorie, the equivalent of 750 miles per gallon. Like my fictitious Jeopardy software, the bicycle is a light-touch technology, that extends the human’s natural ability for mobility rather than replacing it.

I knew there was a reason biking feels so good. It is an efficient tool that greatly enhances my natural ability to get around.

]]> https://jonathanfrei.com/2015/08/cyborg-enhancements-wheels-and-pedals/feed 0 6477 Efficiency https://jonathanfrei.com/2013/04/efficiency https://jonathanfrei.com/2013/04/efficiency#respond Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:36:48 +0000 http://104.131.64.180/?p=229 Lifehacks can save lots of time, but can use up lots of time implementing. XKCD made a handy chart so you can see when the pursuit of efficiency starts to pay off.

]]> https://jonathanfrei.com/2013/04/efficiency/feed 0 229 https://jonathanfrei.com/2012/10/achieve-this-results-up-time-down-via https://jonathanfrei.com/2012/10/achieve-this-results-up-time-down-via#respond Tue, 09 Oct 2012 21:50:55 +0000 http://104.131.64.180/?p=570

Achieve this

Results up. Time down.

(via Measure Results, Not Hours, to Improve Work Efficiency – NYTimes.com)

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