def METHOD_NAME(self, a, b):
    # WARNING: equality comparison of sparse matrices is not fast or easy
    # we definitely do not want to be doing this un-necessarily during
    # a FAST_RUN computation..
    return (
        scipy.sparse.issparse(a)
        and scipy.sparse.issparse(b)
        and abs(a - b).sum() == 0.0
    )