Harmful GOTOs, Premature Optimizations and Programming Myths (...)
summary
Argues that well‑worn maxims hide context and cites concrete evidence: 3% of code accounts for most runtime, so profile before optimizing; historical papers from the 1970s (Dijkstra, Knuth) frame today's myths; shows a PHP example where goto can be faster in PHP because the VM inlines jumps but not function calls; warns against cargo‑cult fixes like blindly choosing NoSQL, microservices or message systems; urges reading original papers, not Hacker News headlines.
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chapters (8)
- 0:00Programming myths and GOTO
- 3:53Programming myths debunked
- 10:35Silver bullets in software
- 18:50Premature optimization
- 23:09Cargo cult programming
- 28:54Ignoring research history
- 34:38Good programming goals
- 37:25Q&A
