I'm not sure quite what you're getting at. I actually agree with you, I'm one of those who does not like imperative code. I think it's completely counterintuiti

I'm not sure quite what you're getting at. I actually agree with you, I'm one of those who does not like imperative code. I think it's completely counterintuitive. I was making an effort to be unbias, by making clear the "good attributes" of each side. I wasn't at all trying to make that harsh of a distiction. In fact I was trying to point out the ridiculousness of it. What I was trying to point out with irony, I should have said clearly what my opinion is: If you're too concerned with speed, and you optimize early, I think your code style is less than ideal. Essentially your code is messed up to the point that it's too difficult to go back to make optimizations if necessary. I think the reason functional programmer's don't talk about optimization as much is because they don't need to. It's a completely different paradigm. So much like politics, if you only listen to one side, you're going to get messed up ideas of the way the world works. I hope this offers a better explanation