Is there a compelling reason (besides convention) why a user's typical default view of a long sorted list is always the beginning of the list and not the middle? Assuming a random distribution of selection targets, it would be more efficient to start in the middle and scroll up or down to find the target selection. For example, when I open my contacts, starting in the median position would halve the average distance I need to scroll. The idea came to me when reading about recursive binary search algorithms. Is there something different in the way that humans perform searching a sorted list that would make the beginning a better place to start than the middle?
Answer
The human brain and a computer algorithm work quite differently.
Your assumption that it should be easier to start in the middle of a list is wrong.
In those cases you would first need to figure out what the middle point of your list was. Then you would need to figure out whether the item you are searching for would be above or below this middle point. Then you could start scrolling in the right direction. If the thing you're looking for would be above the middle, then you would have to search backwards - a pretty complicated mental operation.
I'm not even sure if I know the alphabet backwards... :-P
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