What Theory Should I Push
Feel free to use the glossary as needed.
It depends :)
All jokes aside, this seemingly simple question can have more in-depth answers than you might realize. Selecting a theory to push during the day depends on many factors; some are:
- How often can you check your phones.
- Each theory’s publication length.
- Each theory’s active/idle ratio.
- Each theory’s \(\dot{τ}\).
- Overpushing implications.
How often can you check your phone(s) #
If you can only check your phone once every 8 hours or less often, this is basically the same as overnight. In this case, you would prefer theories that do well while idling (low active/idle ratios). This makes sense because if a theory has a really strong active strategy, you wouldn’t want to waste that potential by idling for 8 hours+. Examples of suitable theories are T2, T4, T6, SL. No other theories have low active/idle ratios.
Each theory’s publication length #
This relates to the first reason. Let’s say you can check your phones once every 8 hours. However, the theory’s optimal publication length is only 4 hours, then you start to automatically lose efficiency by going over the optimal publication length. The efficiency lost depends on the theory.
For example, T2 has the lowest intra-publication decay, so it retains its efficiency quite well even if you go over the optimal publication length. In contrast, a theory like T3 has bad intra-publication decay. If the theory simulator says to publish T3 after 3 hours and you let it idle for 8 hours, you will lose a lot of efficiency. This intra-publication decay is directly related to the concept of overpushing efficiency explained here.
From the explanations above, if you’re forced to go over a theory’s optimal publication length, you should at least do it on a theory that has low intra-publication decay. Once again, the suitable theories are T2, T6, T4 (in this order). T2 is by far the best, with T6 second best. Personally I’d only do this for T2 and T6 only (not T4). For custom theories, the 2 most suitable theories are SL and EF, with preference for SL.
Each theory’s active/idle ratio #
If you have active time, you’d prefer to do theories that have high active/idle ratio (everything else being equal). This is because you can idle when you have time to do active, but you can’t active when you can only idle. So we may as well make the most of the available active time. Theories with high active/idle ratio are T1/T5/T3/T8, WSP. T7, CSR2, EF have moderate active/idle ratio.
However, do consider all the other factors as well. It is possible (and even likely) that it is best to just push a more idle theory even when you have active time.
Each theory’s taudot #
The faster a theory’s \(\dot{τ}\), the more we should do it. This is because we can gain faster tau, which means more students, which means more \(\dot{τ}\). Once again, do consider other factors in conjunction.
Overpushing implications #
The better a theory is for overpushing, the more we should push it first. In general, this means T2, T6, T4 in that order should be pushed first. Custom theories are not affected by overpushing.
Conclusions #
Most of the factors listed above are weighed toward doing more idle theories with long publication lengths and low active/idle ratios. By chance these theories are T2, T4, T6. The recommendation is to push these theories first. Once these theories’ rates are significantly lower than others, push other theories active only when you have active time. If your T2, T4, T6 rates are MUCH slower than others however, you might decide to push other less idle friendly theories anyway even if you sacrifice the active strategy potentials. Ultimately, if you don’t care about leaderboard rankings, you can just push whatever theories you enjoy.