Comment by 01100011

This is the sort of pontifical statement that old guys like me tend to make which is strictly wrong but also contains a lot of wisdom.

Yes, software is bloated, full of useless abstractions and bad design. You kids(well, anyone programming post 1980, so myself included) should be ashamed. Also let's not forget that those abstractions helped us solve problems and our friends in silicon valley(ok that no longer makes sense but imagine if SillyValley still just made HW) covered our mistakes. But yeah, we write crap a lot of the time.

But as other folks have said, it doesn't mean "don't optimize."

I've always used my own version of the phrase, which is: "Don't be stupid." As in, don't do dumb, expensive things unless you need to for a prototype. Don't start with a design that is far from optimal and slow. After profiling, fix the slow things. I'm pretty sure that's what most folks do on some level.