The pithy epigram “premature optimization is the root of all evil” has been variously attributed over the years to Donald Knuth, William Wulf and C.A.R. Hoare. (It appears that Hoare originated the phrase, but Knuth gets credit for popularizing it. See the Cunningham & Cunningham post on Premature Optimization for a summary of Knuth’s thoughts on the subject.)
So what does this mean to you, the intrepid .NET developer? Should you ignore performance and code away to your heart’s content? In my last column for MSDN Magazine I'll show you some tools and techniques to help find errors and bottlenecks in your code before you ship. You can thank me later.