The comments in this overall thread are pretty much echoing the types of discussions and lessons one learns in System Operations. I wonder if part of the chall

The comments in this overall thread are pretty much echoing the types of discussions and lessons one learns in System Operations. I wonder if part of the challenge is that so many companies have decided to ditch "systems" people for developers, assuming that software developers have the same knowledge, interests, experiences, and perspectives as systems folks, and that systems folks are no longer needed. The question isn't "optimize my code" or "add more servers", it's both, and determining when it's appropriate to do one or the other at a given point in time based on current load and expected future trends. But generally, "optimize my code" can be pretty low hanging fruit in complex systems, because if you lack systems people, you end up with everyone focused only on their specific component and nothing else.