The proper way of playing fast notes on a guitar (with a pick) is alternate picking, up/down/up/down. So a three note per string scale ascension would be dud udu dud udu ... I never learned that. Instead I took the shortcut called economy picking, just picking in the direction the pick moves. The same scale ascension would be dud dud dud dud... (since you move down to the next string). This is also a valid technique, but meant as a compliment and normally learned after mastering alternate picking.

Now, economy picking worked pretty well for me for a while, but I'm starting to feel the disadvantages now (very hard to keep a perfectly even pace, easy to get "stuck" in certain picking patterns, etc.) But now for the life of me I cannot unlearn and relearn.

Far fetched parallel, but it makes me think that he could be right about the math as well.