As another responded mentioned, I think the key here is that word "obsess". I'm personally of the belief that the "premature optimization is the root of all ev

As another responded mentioned, I think the key here is that word "obsess". I'm personally of the belief that the "premature optimization is the root of all evil" camp goes way overboard. Especially for web sites since getting a "reddit blackout" means thousands, maybe millions of people probably aren't going to bother about your site ever again. However, I personally allocate a certain amount of my time on getting a fast solution but when it gets into serious tweaking, it's time to decide if you're ever going to have a traffic spike. I'd personally say, go as fast as you can without having to work hard for it. But as others have mentioned, picking something with a lot of options and not coding inefficiently (e.g. don't use associate lists for everything when you know this should be a dictionary).