Optimization Overkill: How to Turn Good Code Bad

When Being Too Smart Makes Your Code Dumb

Intro

I often meet developers who are obsessed with code optimization. Don’t get me wrong, optimizing code is a noble endeavor — when done right, it can lead to programs that run faster, use fewer resources, and provide a better overall user experience. However, what I really dislike is when code is over-optimized for speculative scenarios, like “maybe we’ll switch to a NoSQL database at some point.” This kind of thinking often leads to codebases that are difficult to…