Even if you have a legitimate need to get fine-grained, for me the most common use of lock free programming is to implement the underlying infrastructure for ta

Even if you have a legitimate need to get fine-grained, for me the most common use of lock free programming is to implement the underlying infrastructure for task based systems, where the individual tasks desperately try to stay away from multi-threading hazards - by e.g. keeping shared data immutable (no need for 'lock-free programming'), and keeping mutated data task-local (not shared between threads, and thus again no need for 'lock-free programming'.) Forking / multi-process architectures are of course the logical extension of this - where you're making the entire program state task local, just to be sure. Rule 37: There is no 'overkill.' There is only 'open fire' and 'I need to reload.'