alt Hacker News> "so if we make it execute in 0 seconds, does it mean you're going to make an infinite amount of money?"
I don't get it. Wouldn't going from 1 second to 0 seconds add the same amount of money to the yearly profit as going from 2 seconds to 1 second did? Namely, $1M.
Replies
stronglikedan • 07/30/2025
yeah it's one of those things that are funny to the people saying it because they don't yet realize it doesn't make sense. I bet they felt that later, in the hotel room, in the shower, probably with a bottle of scotch.
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flobosg • 07/30/2025
A process taking 0 seconds means that, in one year, it can be run 31540000 sec/0 sec = ∞ times, multiplying the profit by ∞.
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> I don't get it. Wouldn't going from 1 second to 0 seconds add the same amount of money to the yearly profit as going from 2 seconds to 1 second did? Namely, $1M
Of course the joke was silly. But perhaps I should have provided some context. We were making industrial automation software. This stuff runs in factories. Every saved second shrinks the manufacturing time of a part, leading to increase of the total factory output. When extrapolating to abusrd levels, zero time to manufacture means infinite output per factory (sans raw materials).