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This man is * because he doesn't waste his time doing things the traditional way.

I think the adjective "efficient", "pragmatic" are too general, at least in my opinion. Are there any other adjective that can be used to mean something similar to "being pragmatic and seeking to be as efficient as possible"?

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    I'd say he would only be pragmatic if he chose whichever method was fastest/cheapest/simplest/met the needs of the job. Always avoiding the ordinary/traditional seems more eccentric than efficient.
    – Smock
    Apr 5, 2019 at 15:33
  • The man could be anything positive.
    – Lambie
    Apr 5, 2019 at 15:33

2 Answers 2

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To give you a straight answer to the question: No. Not that I know of. It's a tall order to sum up exactly the meaning of two adjectives in one word.

I'm not totally happy with this, but you might try the word "utilitarian." A person with a utilitarian mindset is more concerned with the fact that a thing works. So there is some significant overlap with pragmatism. Also, it seems to me that if someone has a utilitarian mindset he or she would generally do things as efficiently as possible. Such a person is concerned about usefulness, and generally, inefficient things are less useful. Such a person would not be concerned about doing things the "traditional way" unless, of course, it worked best. And, as Smock points out in his comment, the traditional way sometimes is the most efficient way.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/utilitarian
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/efficient
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pragmatic

Again, I am not totally happy with this, especially regarding sufficient overlap in meaning with the word efficiency. Check it out and see what everyone else suggests.

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A revolutionary? Unconventional? Eccentric? Probably "efficient" would do. As an example:

He's a rather unconventional man, but he's ruthlessly efficient.

If you use what I wrote, you'll probably separate the two with "but" rather than "because". Most of the words I listed would be used like "eccentric but practical", simply because it's assumed that one isn't practical if one is eccentric or unconventional or the like.

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  • I like "unconventional", although you could probably improve this answer with some examples to avoid downvotes.
    – Andrew
    Apr 5, 2019 at 15:54

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