For most programmers most of the time, that’s not enough of a payoff to bother. I would argue that for most programmers, they can't beat the compiler; they pro

For most programmers most of the time, that’s not enough of a payoff to bother. I would argue that for most programmers, they can't beat the compiler; they probably don't have your skills and experience. I'm glad there are still people like you (I've probably used some of your code in embedded projects using VxWorks/PPC), but the truth is that many people like you are writing the compilers (or libraries, as you are). That, and the fact that when you mention profiling, you often get blank stares, plus mentioning algorithmic complexity gets you knotted brows, tends to lead me to believe that the great mass of programmers shouldn't try optimizing, prematurely or otherwise, especially in assembly. Play with it, learn about your whole stack, top to bottom, sure, but very few (such as yourself) can beat a good optimizing compiler.