[loukrazy]

Not to mention the cost of X more servers for a year is probably less costly than the developer time of optimization and the opportunity cost.

[peteradio]

On the other end of the spectrum, really poorly performing code can affect development, testing and delivery times which eats developer time as well. Some developers or testers might sit oh welling waiting for 1hr job to finish when 1 day of development time could turn that job into a 5min run. That kind of optimization pays for itself before it even makes it to production.

[beachy]

Adding poorly performing code is a bit like pissing in a swimming pool.

A little bit is ok. If you have to. But too much of it and there's no way back other than draining the pool and starting again.

[otabdeveloper4]

It's not necessarily either/or. In my experience, the really crappy developers who can't write optimized code are also the ones who are really slow and expensive in developing even the most basic features.

(And the converse is also usually true.)

[Scotrix]

Indeed, that’s basically the point as well. I have seen developers hunting for the „right“ way and best performance even to the microsecond level for no good business reason while ignoring the state of a project/product and the required value they should focus on.