Except if one knows what the definition of big O is, there is nothing to be misled by. What big O tells you is what is the function bounded by after a constant

Except if one knows what the definition of big O is, there is nothing to be misled by. What big O tells you is what is the function bounded by after a constant lower bound on the input. One always want to do performance testing to see whether it comes into play even when it comes to more practical applications such as in code.