Premature optimization is the root of all evil

A favorite of mine, too, but is it even Knuth? I've seen it attributed to at least two other authors as well.

Regardless, here's my big question:

Do you even NEED to optimize it?

So many programmers sit and twiddle their bits in either the wrong place, or in entirely the wrong code.

• If the program's not slow, it doesn't need optimizing.
• If the program's run only occassionally, it probably doesn't need optimizing.
• If it's not impacting anything by being slow, it doesn't need optimizing.

Bit-twiddling is fun, but for those of us who are professional programmers, there's no reason to waste our valuable time squeezing cycles from the program Just Because It's There.

xoxo,
Andy
--
I was dreaming when I wrote this, so sue me if I go too fast.