Comment by R0m41nJosh

When I was young I took time to "optimize" my code where it obviously had no impact, like on simple python scripts. It was just by ego, to look smart. I guess the "early optimization" takes are aimed at young developers who want to show their skills on completely irrelecant places.

Of course with experience, you start to feel when the straight forward suboptimal code will cause massive performance issued. In this case it's critical to take action up front to avoid the mess. Its called software architecture, I guess.