[agentultra]

> Premature optimization is wasteful

More than premature pessimization? Setting your project performance goals is plain good design. It's not premature optimization to suggest that your web server should be able to respond to queries within an average window of time. Working with any kind of service level object and agreement practically requires you to think about these goals at the design phase regardless.

I've come across teams with engineers who couldn't understand why their application was timing out. They had no idea how to work with data structures and memory layout to optimize access. Their response to business stakeholders was to weakly raise their hands to the ceiling and say, "It can't be fixed." Their customers would not have been happy with that answer; they had precious data and reports to deliver.

It's worth knowing, at least on a conceptual level, how memory architectures and data structures affect performances. Otherwise you end up paying people like me a lot of money. And you don't want that.