Ever notice how software updates display a warped countdown that’s more a burndown?
“30 min remaining”
[1 min later]: “17 min remaining”
A temporary 13x speed up of time passing. Exciting version of paint drying.
Kinda like flight delays. Estimate-clocks are relativistic.
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Lots of design advice advocates for this kind of linear process indicator design (progress should never stop bc user must be kept happy, indicator should always exaggerate wait time)
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Relativistic? More like random in an extrapolational statistics mixed with unexpected factors sense.
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A microcosm of the software development process itself. Steady easy progress, occasional unexpected quick wins and inevitable dreaded stop-the-world pauses during which no one knows what the hell is going on
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