[chrisweekly]

Tangent: as a web performance consultant, I've sometimes used "shaving down half the toothbrush handle while carrying a bowling ball in your backpack" as a metaphor for misguided performance optimization efforts.

[jancsika]

To turn it back around-- your entire codebase is on the hiker's back. They feel its aggregate weight with every step.

It's all literally in the hot path.

When bugs show up in the form of back pain, "pre-optimize everything" sounds like a sensible option to me.

[chrisweekly]

Ok, but I'd still say start with the low-hanging fruit.