Tom Hudson - Big Numbers and the 1Hz CPU

Welcome to the 2017 Agile Yorkshire Xmas Lightning Talks Speaker Page The Agile Yorkshire Xmas Lightning Talks Competition in 2017 showcased eight incredible speakers, each delivering a 10-minute talk on a variety of exciting tech topics. The event was filled with energy and audience interaction, making for an unforgettable evening. This video, recorded at the 2017 event, highlights one of the standout talks of the night. Enjoy! Tom Hudson talks about the challenges of understanding large numbers, using examples like how a million seconds is 11 days, and a billion seconds is 32 years. He discusses how numbers grow exponentially and how our brains struggle with them. Using a variety of examples, he explains how numbers in technology (like CPU speeds and latency) work on a similar scale, often leading us to misinterpret their significance. Tom emphasizes that while we perceive all numbers as "fast" or "slow," the difference between them, like from a CPU register to a mechanical hard drive, can be vast. He concludes that understanding these scales is crucial for building high-performance systems.