[pitherpather]

> 0.1 Bellard

Off topic, but a log scale might be useful: 0.1 Bellard --> -10 deciBellards. That allows for: 0.001 Bellard --> -30 deciBellards.

Problem: Programmers with negative productivity cannot be represented on the same log scale.

[araes]

Sure they can. Abs(). Or if you prefer to not have quite so much micro-nano, you could also use Cumulative Distribution Functions [1] which are basically just sums of Probability Density [2].

Are they a 4σ programmer, 1σ programmer, -0.5σ programmer, -2σ programmer?

Plus, most people are "average" not negative productivity, and CDFs let you use really fun stuff like Beta Distributions (variable, shapable distributions) and Gamma Distributions (exponential distributions). They're super sweet as far as probability statistics.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumulative_distribution_functi...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probability_density_function

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_distribution

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_distribution

[hedora]

The number of people that are average is infinitesimal, even if you define average as “mode” instead of median or mean.

About half are better than median though.

[analog31]

>>> Problem: Programmers with negative productivity cannot be represented on the same log scale.

This is similar to the problem of price-to-earnings ratio. The ratio goes asymptotic as earnings goes through zero. It would be better to quote earnings-to-price ratio. Another screwy reciprocal unit is miles per gallon for cars.

[hedora]

Now that I have an EV with 130 miles of range, I’m finding miles per kwh to be much more useful than efficiency.

I’d bet range anxiety was also a thing for early gasoline powered cars, so the early adopters of those probably preferred mpg over gpm.