Premature optimization is the root of all evil, but can it ever be too late?
- by polygenelubricants
"We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil"
So what is that 3% like?
Can the avoidance of premature optimization ever be taken too extreme that it does more harm than good?
Even if it's rare, has there been a case of a real measurable software engineering disaster due to complete negligence to optimize early in the process?
Bonus question: is software engineering pretty much the only field that has such a counter intuitive principle regarding doing something earlier rather than later before things potentially become too big a problem to fix?
Personal question: how do you justify something as premature optimization and not just a case of you being lazy/ignorant/dumb?