Precision and recall are in direct tension.

· Bits and Bobs 9/29/25
  • Precision and recall are in direct tension.
    • These are two terms of art in the information retrieval domain.
    • Recall: inclusion in set of results
    • Precision: ranking quality within the set of results
    • The best solution is to move the curve with quality improvements.
    • But you can always trivially tradeoff either to improve the other.
    • Every ranking problem has a precision/recall tradeoff.