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My friend is so old-school. He gave me the list below of phrases that he calls Inefficient Phrases™, which, by the way, are totally unrelated to Efficient Phrases™, and all other types of Phrases™ that were the subject of previous puzzles.

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What makes a phrase an Inefficient Phrase™, and why are they called that?

(Note: If someone posts the correct answer to the first part of the question, and then later someone else correctly explains why the phrases are called Inefficient, both will be up-voted, but that someone else will get the tick mark.)

EDIT: Here are some examples to show that the "5 pairs" answer by GentlePurpleRain is not exactly it:

The following examples are Not Inefficient Phrases™
1. SPORTSCASTER PODCASTS
2. ANTHROPOLOGISTS ARE OPPORTUNISTIC
3. MONOPOLISTIC TOPOLOGISTS
Each of the 3 examples above has 7 pairs of letters that are adjacent in the alphabet

On the other hand, the following examples are Inefficient Phrases™, yet they have zero pairs of adjacent letters.
1. MOMS PROMOTE
2. GIG CARPS
3. SPRY CAMPS

In response to Mauris's comment, here's a plaintext version of the picture of the table:

Inefficient Phrases, Not Inefficient Phrases
DEBUTED TONIGHT, LAUNCHED THIS EVENING
TUTORS SPOONFED, TEACHERS HELP TOO MUCH
BABIED BABOONS, PAMPERED MONKEYS
DEACON CHIDED, MINISTER SCOLDED
COMMONERS FEUDED, CIVILIANS FOUGHT
SCARFED ABALONE, ATE SEA SNAILS
HIGHEST LONGITUDE, MAXIMUM EAST-WEST POINT
PREFERS MONOSPACED, LIKES FIXED-WIDTH
AUTUMN BACKLIGHT, FALL BACKGROUND
CONFEDERACY PROMOTERS, SECESSION ADVOCATE
DEFACERS ABATED, VANDALS DECREASED
CABBAGE SPROUTED, BRASSICA OLERACEA GREW
BANDED SPIDERS, STRIPED ARACHNIDS
DEFEATS DEMONS, CONQUERS DEVILS
DELIGHTED DONORS, HAPPY CONTRIBUTOR
SPEEDERS ABSCONDED, RACERS FLED
DEFENSE CUTBACK, PROTECTION REDUCTION
ABANDONED HIGHWAY, DESERTED ROAD
HONORS DELIGHT, RECOGNITION PLEASES

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JLee
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2 Answers2

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An Inefficient Phrase™ is one in which all of its words, when typed out using a standard phone keypad, have 50% or more of their adjacent letters in the same group*.

*A group is the letters associated with the numbers 2 through 9 on a standard phone keypad. So, there are 8 groups in total.

It was a degree more difficult (or took longer) to write text messages with old phones which used these pads, because you needed to wait a short amount of time (or press a button on more recent older phones) if you wanted to type out another letter in the same set as the previous letter.

For example, COMMONERS would require you to tap: 222 666 [WAIT] 6 [WAIT] 6 [WAIT] 666 [WAIT] 6 33 777 [WAIT] 7777, while typing CIVILIANS would require: 222 444 888 444 555 444 2 66 7777 (with no breaks in between). It should also be noted that from learning to type this way over time, you could write messages very quickly as long as you didn't require pausing to enter a letter in the same set as the previous.

It's inefficient because you have to pause/break your flow of typing many times to type out the letters which are in the same set that exist in the Inefficient Phrases™, as opposed to finding another word with more spaced out lettering which could be punched in faster.

Mobile phone keypad

If you look at the inefficient words combined with the "old school" clue..

  • [DE]B[UT][ED] T[ON][IGH]T
  • [TUT]O[RS] [SP][OON][FED]
  • [BAB]I[ED] [BAB][OON]S
  • [DEFE]A[TS] [DE][MON]S
  • [DE][AC][ON] C[HI][DED]
  • C[OMMON]E[RS] [FE]U[DED]
  • S[CA]R[FED] [ABA]L[ON]E
  • [SPR]Y [CA]M[PS]

etc.

JLee
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Sean
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  • Added a bit more clarity, if it helps! – Sean Jul 09 '15 at 13:45
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    The more I look at it, the more I feel it has to do with the regularity of having to press the same number, rather than a requisite of at least 3 characters. – Sean Jul 09 '15 at 13:48
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    Maybe you have to count the pairs of letters in each phrase that require the same key? So for DEBUTED TONIGHT, it would be 6 - DE, UT, ED, ON, IG, GH. – Bailey M Jul 09 '15 at 13:51
  • Refined my answer. It seems like there are no two adjacent letters which are followed by, or follow, a letter in the same letter group. – Sean Jul 09 '15 at 14:02
  • Actually, this is also wrong, as HIGHEST is split out like HIGH-E-S-T. ): – Sean Jul 09 '15 at 14:03
  • Thanks for fixing up the answer @JLee, as soon as I realized I was on to something I rushed the answer out.. at the expense of articulation (; – Sean Jul 09 '15 at 14:47
  • For COMMONERS wouldn't the taps actually be: 222 666 [WAIT] 6 [WAIT] 666 [WAIT] 66 33 777 [WAIT] 7777 ? (my phone is of the old-school type you describe) – dennisdeems Jul 09 '15 at 14:55
  • I missed the double M, d'oh! – dennisdeems Jul 09 '15 at 15:03
  • Whoops, good spot on the 6's! – Sean Jul 09 '15 at 15:10
  • You fixed COMMONERS wrongly, you gave the 'm's a double 6 and the 'n' a single six, but it should be the other way around. So 222 666 [WAIT] 6 [WAIT] 6 [WAIT] 666 [WAIT] 66 33 777 [WAIT] 7777. – PrisonMonkeys Jul 10 '15 at 19:45
  • @PrisonMonkeys Thank you. It's been a month since your comment, but I just now saw it. Corrected. – JLee Aug 12 '15 at 17:10
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    I am still dazzled by the insight that led to this answer. It completely eluded me, and I own such a phone! – dennisdeems Aug 12 '15 at 17:14
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Each Inefficient Phrase™ has at least five pairs of letters that are adjacent in the alphabet.

e.g. [DE]B[UT][ED] T[ON]I[GH]T
[TU]TO[RS] S[PO][ON][FED]

As for why they're called "inefficient," I'll leave that for someone else to figure out.

GentlePurpleRain
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  • Good find, and on the right track. Keep going... – JLee Jul 07 '15 at 18:31
  • Hmm... Most, but not all, seem to have a construct of the form ABA, where A and B are adjacent letters of the alphabet. Many also have groups of four letters that consist of 3 alphabet-adjacent letters (with one repeated) e.g. HIGH (G,H,I are adjacent in the alphabet). – GentlePurpleRain Jul 07 '15 at 18:38
  • maybe it's inefficient to try and encrypt them, since the letters repeat like ABA so often? – Nyk 232 Jul 07 '15 at 18:41
  • wait: What about "Minister scolded"? It's got a DED set. – Nyk 232 Jul 07 '15 at 18:42
  • @Nyk232, I don't think the "not inefficient phrases" are precluded from having those constructs -- they just don't have them to the same degree. My original answer stated that every word in the phrase must have two pairs. "Minister scolded" doesn't fit that definition. – GentlePurpleRain Jul 07 '15 at 18:45
  • ah, right. my bad, didn't read it correctly ;( – Nyk 232 Jul 07 '15 at 18:45
  • Confederacy Promoters is causing problems for me in this respect, as Promoters only has one pair of letters that are adjacent in the alphabet. "Pair" being defined as two letters that are adjacent in the word. – VictorHenry Jul 07 '15 at 18:53
  • @VictorHenry, you're right; I missed that. Maybe it needs to be 5 pairs overall in the phrase, because "confederacy" has four (if you let pairs overlap). ("Abandon and defect" doesn't fit my description either, because "AND" has no pairs.) – GentlePurpleRain Jul 07 '15 at 18:55
  • I missed that too! I will remove the and. it shouldn't be in the left column!!! sorry. ... – JLee Jul 07 '15 at 19:00
  • If you allow skipping letters (which may be part of the "inefficiency") and ignore adjacency in the word itself, you get much bigger groups, by the way. For example, in Confederacy Promoters, being allowed to skip Q lets you group OP with RTS, and in fact skipping N allows you to bring in the M as well. Skipping the B in Confederacy and ignoring word adjacency allows you to pull in AC. Just throwing ideas out there. – VictorHenry Jul 07 '15 at 19:01
  • On the right track, but not quite it! – JLee Jul 07 '15 at 19:27