Often by abstracting the algorithmic implementation details from the system organization and logic. Then the individual algorithms can be interchanged or modif

Often by abstracting the algorithmic implementation details from the system organization and logic. Then the individual algorithms can be interchanged or modified during optimization. There is of course some scale dependence to the use of these terms; the 'design' is of a larger system than the individual algorithms that compose it and can be abstracted and optimized. In cases where the scale is the same, i.e. variations of the design itself will have substantial impact on its performance characteristics, then optimization and design can't be readily distinguished and Knuth's aphorism is less clearly relevant.