I suppose the question is how do you rank each stress against each other?

If we use an arbitrary stress unit (maybe call it a "Dammit"), with a single Tap being the base unit (1 Dammit), then could we use usability tests to try and quantify a Swipe stress (2 Dammits?)

If a page takes 2 seconds to load, would that be 2 Dammits, or does the Stress v Page Load graph follow a geometric curve where every half second doubles the stress (so 2 seconds is then closer to 4 Dammits)

Seems like good research for anyone involved in the alchemy of trying to find a formula for turning a pile of UX components into that "killer app"

That's why I tried to break it down to component stresses as much as possible. A tap, a swipe, a single second of page load, a single second spent looking around for something that's hard to find each counting as a single "stress."

That said, there would have to be a ton of research done to see how equivalent these things really are on the whole. And of course it's going to be context dependent.

I meant this more as a framework for thinking about making user flows as simple as possible, and the implications on your product.

Are you a writer for Silicon Valley?

"Stress" here sounds like a kind of inverse analogue to the economic concept of utility.

I think that's fair to say. And importantly, a "stress" is what keeps a user from achieving the utility of a product.