Nate Berkopec • 12/22/2019

The World Follows Power Laws: Why Premature Optimization is Bad

This article argues that any software optimization not based on observed measurements in production is premature. It uses the Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) and examples like Benford's Law to demonstrate that real-world data follows power laws, making intuitive optimization guesses ineffective. The piece promotes an empirical, measurement-driven approach to performance work, specifically in the context of software development.

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#software engineering #performance optimization #premature optimization