The Space-Time Trade-Off
Time is not in our hands. Nor can we control the ever expanding space of the universe. But what if I told you, by putting constraints on either time or space you can make sure that you never make a wrong decision. For the science loving enthusiasts, they may have read about the Space-Time trade-off theory in Computer Science. For those who haven’t:
“ A space-time or time-memory trade-off is therefore a case where an algorithm or program trades increased space for decreased time or vice-versa. “
Let me explain it more simply. In some cases, the efficiency of a program increases by decreasing the time allotted for it to run and in other cases the memory part is minimized so that the program can take more time to run and give a more accurate result.
So now coming back to the point, how can we optimize our life and not just our programs by using this trade-off?
Can we do so?
Sure we can!
Imagine, you live alone in a city, which lacks a good public transport system, so you depend on apps such as Ola for traveling. So when you decide to explore the city, with no time constraints whatsoever you would always prefer an Ola share ride to minimize the cost (who does not want to save pocket money :P) Agreed?
Now, imagine the same scenario, but instead of living alone you live with your parents. And by parents, I mean strict parents. So when you go exploring this time, you have a time constraint of say 9 o’clock. You lose track of time, and it’s 8:30.
What do you do?
Will you still call an Ola Share?
If, I were you, I would not. I would call an Ola Mini or even a Prime if the need be to reach on time. Cause money is not a constraint here, time is. Though you take this decision without even realizing that you used this analogy, but it may help you take decisions effectively and most of the times it should be the right one.
There’s a decision to be taken assumed as X. You have only two options to do with it. You are either for it or against it. Both the outcomes, if you notice won’t have the same time-space trade-off to implement your choice. Mathematically speaking, lets draw a truth table for a time- space trade-off for an event X with Time(T) and Space(S) (Space here in life may mean anything depending on the situation X, say money, knowledge, wealth, health, respect etc.) as the possible constraints.
1 means that there is no constraint.
0 means that there is a constraint.
Let us analyze the first row. A good example of this result is what we college goers do a day before the exam. We have a very big time constraint where each minute counts, but our space (here the syllabus) is maximized. So we optimize it and omit the parts which we feel are not important and do the rest part efficiently in whatever time we have and get good marks. This is just an example where the first row is the viable choice, when the event X is to get good marks.
You may find it funny, but by doing this you can see all the consequences of your decision right in front of you. That too not some over-thought possibility, but an actual logical consequence.
Presently, life is faster than the speed of Flash. I doubt the fact whether I would get the time to use this analogy on trivial matters. But when I am confused, I would never hesitate to plot it out and try to arrive on a conclusion.
People say that Engineering gives you just technical knowledge. In my opinion, it teaches you not only that but also a unique way to look at life which is taught nowhere else on our planet.
So why don’t you give it a go and share your own Time-Space trade off hypothesis with me and deduce some innovative decision making mechanisms 😉
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