the.com/backoff
the algorithmic art of trying again, but slightly more embarrassed each time.
means a strategy where a system waits progressively longer between retries after failure, so it doesn't hammer a struggling resource into oblivion.
from born in networking, most famously in ethernet collision handling and later tcp retransmission, where 'exponential backoff' let devices politely wait longer and longer instead of repeatedly colliding.
exponential doublingeach retry typically waits twice as long as the last
jitter addedrandomness prevents synchronized retries from colliding again
aloha network originfirst formalized for hawaii's 1970s aloha radio network