Efficiency Derives from Understanding Human Thresholds

Efficiency in software design is often influenced by the technological constraints present during the time of development. Older software like early versions of Outlook or Microsoft Wear may seem more agile because they were tailored to fit within the limited capabilities of the past technology. The speaker notes that even his 20-year-old MacBook from 2002 boots up swiftly and launches apps quickly, attributing this speed to a consistent human expectation of how fast technology should be. The key factor behind software efficiency lies in meeting human expectations of a reasonable wait time relative to the importance of the task at hand.