Zero-cost abstractions are exactly that: - you only pay for what you use - if you use it, you couldn't implement it better yourself There's no such thing as

Zero-cost abstractions are exactly that: - you only pay for what you use - if you use it, you couldn't implement it better yourself There's no such thing as literally zero cost, obviously. Graydon was saying that even this fairly reasonable pair of conditions got in the way of some nicer abstractions.