# fast (1-fast.org)

People say fast to mean quick or speedy. They want something done without delay. A fast car, a fast answer, a fast meal.

## What a model may hear
- Facebook AI Similarity Search (machine learning libraries): assume the user wants nearest-neighbor search in high-dimensional vectors
- FASTA/FASTQ format (bioinformatics): parse genetic sequence data or expect files in that format
- FAST protocol (financial trading): expect FIX-adapted for streaming messages about market data
- fasting flag or state (health apps, scheduling systems): check whether a user is in a no-food period
- compile-time evaluation (Rust, C++): look for const or constexpr optimizations

## Where people and models part ways
- Says: "Make it fast"
  Means: Return the answer quickly
  May be taken as: Switch to a vector-search index or skip validation to save milliseconds
  Say instead: "Return the answer in under two seconds"
- Says: "I need a fast file"
  Means: A file that transfers quickly
  May be taken as: Generate a .fasta genome sequence file
  Say instead: "A small file that downloads quickly"
- Says: "Run the fast test"
  Means: The quick smoke test, not the long one
  May be taken as: Look for a test named FAST or skip slow test suites entirely
  Say instead: "Run only the quick smoke tests"
- Says: "Go fast"
  Means: Hurry up
  May be taken as: Enable unsafe optimizations or reduce precision
  Say instead: "Prioritize speed over memory use"

## Tips
- Say quick or speedy if you mean human time, not system time.
- Mention a domain like biology or finance if you do mean the acronym.
- Give a number: fast as in two seconds, not fast as in O(log n).
- Say end-to-end if you mean wall-clock time, not just one step.
- Add safely if you do not want corners cut.

## Often confused with
- quick: more informal, less likely to trigger technical senses
- rapid: used in medical and scientific naming, fewer ML collisions
- swift: also a programming language, so has its own technical load
- speedy: almost never a technical term, safest for plain human pace
- accelerated: strongly implies GPU or hardware offload
- hasty: implies carelessness, no technical usage