The quote specifically calls out "small efficiency gains" as a premature optimization. Specific example is a goto statement that is not as "clean" as many othe

The quote specifically calls out "small efficiency gains" as a premature optimization. Specific example is a goto statement that is not as "clean" as many other control structures, but still makes a big impact on a particular implementation of a routine in question. Implicit, I argue, is the idea that you were also not reaching to methods that were adding inefficiencies. That is, I think the argument is fine that you can and should try to write efficient code at a high level.