[seanwilson]

> 99.9% of coders just need to know what things in their chosen language(s) are performance sensitive and what aren't - very few actually need to know the exact reason why.

Genuine question: How would you describe the performance properties of an algorithm in API docs without talking about e.g. logarithmic, linear or exponential growth? How could you understand these concepts of growth without knowing some basic algorithms that demonstrate them?

It's not like API docs can contain explanations like "be careful, this algorithm gets a little slower each time you add a new item and this other algorithm get super slower each time!".

> And even fewer need to be able to improve on said algorithms.

Nobody is talking about inventing a new sorting algorithm. I'm talking about being able to analyse the CPU + memory growth properties of a complete program you wrote yourself (which are algorithms...) and fixing bottlenecks by applying appropriate standard data structures and algorithms.

[croh]

I can understand intent of your question. But as per my experience, very few fresh devs read manuals. They try to search something like 'how to sort in python/php/java blah blah'. Now this may or may not an ideal way but it works. Not all have to deal with scale like google. (getting 1000 customers is big deal itself).

Now if you're really smart mechanic and brave enough to face interesting challenges, you start building solutions with intution. After sometime, you slowly realize & accept gap between your knowledge and PhD. So you keep learning and improving yourself on the fly. I am not undermining importance of algorithm knowledge but many businesses need just working solution. They deal with scale when business scales. Just trying to answer your genuine question. Performance comes in consideration if only business demands.

Also on side note, asking engine designer to make hands dirty and fit screw (in given time - without manual) is not always good skill-test if HIS JOB NOT REQUIRES IT. This thing is easy for mechanic as he is doing it daily. Designer will somehow make it work but obviously she will take more time than mechanic. Now there are always exceptions but hope you get the gist.