Comment by nkurz

HN is an astonishing thing!

Article: "We can also refute Bernstein’s argument from first principles: the kind of people who can effectively hand-optimize code are expensive and not incredibly plentiful."

Commenter: "IMO he couldn't give a convincing answer to the guy who asked about LuaJIT author being out of a job."

Guy in audience: "I was that guy in the audience."

LuaJIT author: "Actually, LuaJIT 1.x is just that"

Voice in my head: "Aspen 20, I show you at one thousand eight hundred and forty-two knots, across the ground."

Meta: Apologies for the abstract response, but I couldn't figure out a better way to present the parallel. It can be hard to explain artistic allusions without ruining them. What I mean to say is that this pattern of responses reminded me in a delightful way of the classic story of the SR-71 ground speed check: http://www.econrates.com/reality/schul.html