> Let me put it this way: “Premature optimization being the root of all evil” is the root of all evil. The disconnect for most people is that optimization does

> Let me put it this way: “Premature optimization being the root of all evil” is the root of all evil. The disconnect for most people is that optimization does not necessarily mean “performance”. It can mean optimizing for reusability, compatibility, objected-orientedness. Basically trying to optimize for a use case that you don’t have yet. I see this happen all the time with people optimizing to make their solution more general. It makes the code more complex and it may never be used in a general case. If you are trying to build a performance piece of software, then you should absolutely be optimizing for that from the start. That’s not premature optimization, that’s meeting your design goals.