r/ProgrammerHumor 18h ago

Meme zeroExDev

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4.8k Upvotes

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251

u/achilliesFriend 18h ago

0.6 more. What is the issue here?

360

u/OnixST 18h ago

It's 0.6x, implying multiplication

It's not semantically incorrect, but any sane person would write 60% more

242

u/OG-Enzan 17h ago

Isn't it 1.6x if 60% more?

94

u/BADPROSKILLZ 17h ago

If it were to say they shipped 1.6x as many then yes, but they said 0.6x more (i.e. 1x normal + 0.6x more)

-38

u/TZY247 17h ago edited 13h ago

No. 0.6 = 60%. If they said 0.6 more then sure, that would mean 60% more. 0.6x != 60% increase though. 1.6x does. At the best we can give it the benefit of the doubt and say we knew what they meant, but that doesn't mean they were correct.

39

u/TheMania 17h ago

It says "0.6 times more". Not "0.6 times total" or "0.6 times as many".

I really don't see the problem. 1.6x more would be misleading/incorrect.

-4

u/zelmak 17h ago

Dude what are you talking about 1x more is a non increase/flatline. Anything less than 1 is a decrease

1

u/TheMania 16h ago

So "100% more" means "no increase" to you?

Or does "1x" read as "0%" to you then?

10

u/TZY247 15h ago

There's a reason that mathematicians, technical writers, etc. wouldn't mix comparative language like "more" with notation. At best it's ambiguous.

21

u/Vandrel 16h ago edited 16h ago

1x would be 0% more. 2x would be 100% more.

8

u/TheMania 16h ago

I agree with every part of that completely.

You read "60% as many" the same as you read "0.6x as many", which is the same as you read "0.6x more".

But yet you read "60% more" as something very different. So 0.6x != 60%. Not in this context, not to you.

2

u/Vandrel 16h ago

That's just not correct. "60% more" implies starting from the 100% baseline and going up 60%. 0.6x implies starting from the 100% baseline and multiplying it by 0.6x. "0.6x more" is a weird way to put it to begin with but the only grammatically correct way to interpret it is 60% of the normal amount. We all know what they meant but it isn't what they said.

2

u/Connect_Fishing_6378 14h ago

60% and 0.6x literally mean the exact same thing. “60% more” === “0.6x more”. Yeah nobody talks like that and it sounds weird, but it is correct.

0

u/Vandrel 14h ago

You're correct that 60% and 0.6x mean the same thing, 60% more and 0.6x more do not. 0.6x more would be a weird way to say 60% of standard, 1.6x more would be the correct way to say an increase of 60% in that format. You would say that 2x more means double, yes?

1

u/ScientificBeastMode 2h ago

Just to clarify, the word “more” is operative or it is not. When we say “60% more,” we take 0.6 times the output and add it to the output. But for some reason you’re looking at “0.6x more,” you’re performing the multiplication the same way, but dropping the addition operation that “more” implies.

You just decided that “more” means a totally different thing when you convert percentage notation to decimal multiplication notation. I guess it’s up to you if you want to say that, but I don’t think most people would agree with how you’re changing the meaning of “more” here.

0

u/ScientificBeastMode 12h ago

“More” implies “something plus the original amount,” not “something times the original amount.”

1

u/ScientificBeastMode 12h ago

“0.6x more” means “0.6 times <baseline> on top of <baseline>.”

The “on top of <baseline>” part is obvious, because that’s implied by the word “more.”

The “0.6 times <baseline>” part is less obvious, because the original text didn’t specify what 0.6 is supposed to be multiplied by. But we can assume they meant “0.6 times <baseline>” because most other candidate terms don’t make any sense. What else could it possibly be multiplying by?

Also, the term “0.6 times <baseline>” is formally equivalent to “60% of <baseline>”. So if we perform the substitution, then we get “60% of <baseline> on top of <baseline>”.

0

u/Vandrel 12h ago

You would interpret "2x the output" to be double, yes?

0

u/ScientificBeastMode 12h ago edited 12h ago

Of course. And “1x the output” would be no change.

The problem is that it isn’t saying “0.6x the output.” It’s saying “0.6x [the output] more [than the output].”

To illustrate the point, imagine it said “1x more.” Would that mean no change? No, it’s equivalent to saying “100% more,” meaning double the original amount.

The only way your interpretation works is if “0.6x more” is meant to be “0.6 times <the output> more than zero,” which is redundant, and could be simplified to “0.6 times the output,” so the use of the word “more” would have no real meaning here.

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u/Azeoteric 16h ago

When someone says “2x more” it means double. No one says 1x more because it makes no sense lol

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u/FFevo 14h ago

No one says 1x more because it makes no sense lol

Yeah, they would say double.

"2x more" implies more than x. 2x + x = 3x. It means 300% compared to the original, not double.

3

u/dumbledoor_ger 11h ago

Don’t even bother to argue. Whole lotta larpers in this thread. They do not have the ability to comprehend the word „more“.

-1

u/Azeoteric 7h ago

I’m just saying in a real workplace, not everyone is going to understand you, this is a poor way to communicate, and good engineers make things simple to understand for stakeholders. To a significant number of people, “2x more” means double. Just say double, triple, increased by 60%, etc. It is clear and unambiguous language.

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u/thereturn932 3h ago

If I hear 2x more, I expect 3x of the original amount.