---
title: It always takes a second
url: https://www.grahambrooks.com/post/2010-03-18-it-always-takes-a-second/
date: 2010-03-18T00:00:00+00:00
author: Graham Brooks
tags:
- observability
---

# It always takes a second

Why do application developers think that adding more functionality is
always a good thing for the user? When I first started working on GUI
applications (Windows 1.0) we worked very hard to get sub-second
response times. Now in theory applications running on multi-core 2+GHz
processors should out strip 286 CPUs running in the MHz range. What
seems to have append instead is that applications have maintained the
same sort of response times (in general) taking 1 or more seconds to
perform a task.

In most cases I am happy to wait for a second. Typically I am
switching tasks and short waits give me a chance to think ahead a
little bit so I can get going quickly.

When I am working on a single task that involves multiple applications
then waiting – even for a second just feels too long. Sure the
applications have a lot more features but for most of my development
work I want speed. Waiting around for an application to start is a
complete waste of my time (most of the time).

So the next time you are working on developing application keep
response times down — And I mean way way down in the 100ms
range. And if you are waiting on potentially slow resources
(e.g. network) then for goodness sake spin off a thread and don't keep
me waiting around for the network to time out – I have enough
grey hair as it is and I don't want to grow old waiting for the
connection to time out.