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A visual introduction to big O notation

(samwho.dev)
688 points samwho | 1 comments | 24 Aug 25 07:39 UTC | HN request time: 0.216s | source
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jcalx ◴[25 Aug 25 20:34 UTC] No.45018653[source]▶
This article and its associated HN comment section continue in the long tradition of Big O Notation explainers [0] and getting into a comment kerfuffle over the finer, technical points of such notation versus its practical usage [1]. The wheel turns...

[0] https://nedbatchelder.com/text/bigo.html

[1] https://nedbatchelder.com/blog/201711/toxic_experts.html

replies(8): >>45018700 #>>45019269 #>>45019323 #>>45019459 #>>45020278 #>>45022682 #>>45024681 #>>45026341 #
1. the_af ◴[25 Aug 25 21:30 UTC] No.45019269[source]▶
I think the lesson of those articles is not that people should stop trying to correct a misleading or incorrect explanation, but rather, that some people on the internet (like the "expert" described there) are more interested in picking and winning "fights" rather than gently helping the author correct his article. If you see Pyon's comments, he was very aggressive and very internet-troll-like.

The wrong take from this would be "... and therefore, technical details don't matter and it's ok to be inaccurate."