Unnecessary Unpredictability
Seeking and waiting of unknown length waste cognitively useful time, so choose or build the predictable option unless certainty costs more.
The principle
It is frustrating because it is unnecessary.
It is annoying because it is inefficient.
I see this pattern too often. I don’t actually see it, I feel it, hitting my nerves.
In these modern times, with all our modern capabilities, it still happens too much.
The pattern is unnecessary unpredictability.
Standing in a queue where the waiting time depends on an arbitrary number of people taking an arbitrary amount of time.
Navigating your devices with steps that could be deterministic but aren’t.
These things should be absolutely minimized if you don’t want to waste precious cognitive headspace and be dehumanized.
Cognitive time as a precious and limited resource
For a human, time is scarce. What is even more scarce is the time that is actually cognitively useful. Unnecessary unpredictability drains cognitively useful time more than actual time. That is why I would trade actual time waiting for predictability.
Everyone has their own choice to make how to spend their cognitive time, or some people may have less cognitive quality to waste. It’s not up to me to make “ought” statements, but I am trying to make you aware these processes are actually wasteful. However, if I feel like my cognitive time is unnecessarily wasted, I will push back and comment on it, not subtly at that.
Inefficiency type: seeking
A Windows or Mac window opens on a random spot of the screen. One has to seek? Why? No good reason and it requires an unnecessary seeking step. Use something like AeroSpace (for Mac) for full/split screen only.
Alt+Tab shows recent programs. Do you have all recent programs in your own memory in perfect order? No, so it requires a seeking step. Use Spotlight or Raycast and just type what you need; perfectly predictable.
Do you know exactly what’s in that drawer? For most drawers, probably not, and you spend cognitive juice seeking. As much as is reasonably possible, give everything a fixed place.
Inefficiency type: waiting
Stairs are less cognitively draining than elevators. When is the elevator coming? That depends on an arbitrary number of people on an arbitrary number of floors. The stairs win even though they are slower and require more physical effort.
Trains over buses. Trains are usually on time, buses are not. Buses face traffic lights and an arbitrary amount of traffic too. Unpredictable waiting is a waste. Trains don’t drain, buses do.
Self-checkout defeats the unnecessarily inefficient queue. No more waiting on an arbitrary number of customers having their arbitrary amount of groceries scanned.
When unpredictability is worth it
If you know you have to wait a long time for a certain option, the shorter uncertain option may be preferable.
The rule
Build or choose predictable options unless the cost of certainty is greater than the cost of uncertainty.