“By understanding a machine-oriented language, the programmer will tend to use a much more efficient method; it is much closer to reality.”

—  Donald Ervin Knuth , book The Art of Computer Programming

Vol. I, preface (October 1967) to the first edition. (p. x 1973, p. ix 1997)
The Art of Computer Programming (1968–2011)

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Donald Ervin Knuth photo
Donald Ervin Knuth 32
American computer scientist 1938

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Programmers waste enormous amounts of time thinking about, or worrying about, the speed of noncritical parts of their programs, and these attempts at efficiency actually have a strong negative impact when debugging and maintenance are considered. We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil. Yet we should not pass up our opportunities in that critical 3%.
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