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0 pointscornstalks4d ago0 comments

Some programmers will write more efficient code. At my $dayjob (one of the big tech companies) we're already planning a major goal next year of optimizing server code to reduce RAM requirements, and this is directly in response to the crunch.

In practice I expect most optimizations will come from "stop doing stupid stuff" and not "use fancy advanced algorithms." But that's a cynical perspective so don't be cynical like me.

0 comments

19 comments · 4 top-level

devmor4d ago· 7 in thread

“Stop doing stupid stuff” is usually the biggest performance gain in commercial development.

We do stupid stuff as a stopgap to meet a deadline and then stupid stuff stays until it starts being a problem.

thewebguyd4d ago

There's nothing more permanent than a temporary fix. If deadlines are causing those stopgaps, the aggressive deadlines are the root problem.

ChrisMarshallNY4d ago

> There's nothing more permanent than a temporary fix.

That should be one of those Tech culture “laws.”

I suspect that the dependapocalyse is a significant factor. When every part of an operation has multiple context rebuilds, and resources are not shared across module boundaries, you get inefficient behavior.

But I’m skeptical that there’s a will to rethink that.

1 more reply

devmor4d ago

In my experience, many of those deadlines are commonly the only reason the company continues to exist as well.

The root of the problem is much more deeply ingrained in our economic system.

jcgrillo4d ago

I swapped the engine on my lawn mower ~3yr ago because it no longer had any compression and was very hard to start. The new engine has an electric starter. I didn't have time to fabricate a proper battery tray so I ratchet strapped a 2x4 to the gas tank and strapped the battery to that. It stayed that way until last month when I finally had time to weld up a battery tray.

Sometimes when some janky p.o.s. solution works well enough, it truly is good enough.

timacles4d ago

Honestly, after years of seeing this play out, a lot of devs really lack the judgement to know when something is good enough to deliver and will endlessly delay projects to “ do the right thing”

1 more reply

msalsas4d ago

Totally agree. In these days of fast devs it's common to see PO's excitement reducing deadlines and assumimg a dev can deliver 5 feats in a day instead of trying to stabilize and fix bugs. Sad

jopsen4d ago

No deadline, no product.

Shipping is very important, sometimes more important than what you ship :)

dabinat4d ago· 5 in thread

The key word here is “server”. Optimizing memory server-side directly translates to cost savings for companies. There is a lot less incentive to optimize memory for code that runs on the user’s computer.

throwaway20374d ago

    > Optimizing memory server-side directly translates to cost savings for companies.

Only if those cost savings exceed the cost of development. Optimisation work is usually done by the most experienced, and hence most expensive engineers. It is also possible that the optimisation efforts will fail to produce meaningful results. In my career, I have seen more optimisation efforts fail than succeed.

Byamarro4d ago

That's a clever observation and is very true. Development time tho historically was also very expensive hence push for easy to work with dev stacks such as js

avarun4d ago

There's plenty of incentive if it causes your users to churn.

remus4d ago

It is typically hard to directly attribute churn though, whereas some massive EC2 instance costing you $30/day is a clear line item where cost savings can be measured easily.

znpy4d ago

Nah that simply doesn’t happen. Users routinely blame that on the hardware or on the operating system, occasionally rightfully so.

My anecdotal data point: my MacBook neo with 8 gb of ram running mac os is much snappier than my thinkpad x13g1 (ryzen 7 pro, 8c/16t+ 32gb memory) running linux.

Same user (me), same apps, same websites, same data.

I don’t really blame the apps.

kapperchino4d ago· 3 in thread

Real, there are so many low hanging fruits for optimization but no one has time to do them. And they don’t incentivize spending your time on it either.

pjc504d ago

Exactly. Customer's RAM is free to the developer.

thewhitetulip4d ago

Especially when LLMs are used to generate most of the code anyways in bigcorps

inigyou4d ago

Is there a single example of a successful LLM project apart from Claude Code?

2 more replies

hashmap4d ago

even a lot of the fancy algorithms are ways to not do something you dont need to do, it's rooting out waste all the way down.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

19 comments · 4 top-level

devmor4d ago· 7 in thread

“Stop doing stupid stuff” is usually the biggest performance gain in commercial development.

We do stupid stuff as a stopgap to meet a deadline and then stupid stuff stays until it starts being a problem.

thewebguyd4d ago

There's nothing more permanent than a temporary fix. If deadlines are causing those stopgaps, the aggressive deadlines are the root problem.

ChrisMarshallNY4d ago

> There's nothing more permanent than a temporary fix.

That should be one of those Tech culture “laws.”

But I’m skeptical that there’s a will to rethink that.

1 more reply

devmor4d ago

In my experience, many of those deadlines are commonly the only reason the company continues to exist as well.

The root of the problem is much more deeply ingrained in our economic system.

jcgrillo4d ago

Sometimes when some janky p.o.s. solution works well enough, it truly is good enough.

timacles4d ago

Honestly, after years of seeing this play out, a lot of devs really lack the judgement to know when something is good enough to deliver and will endlessly delay projects to “ do the right thing”

1 more reply

msalsas4d ago

Totally agree. In these days of fast devs it's common to see PO's excitement reducing deadlines and assumimg a dev can deliver 5 feats in a day instead of trying to stabilize and fix bugs. Sad

jopsen4d ago

No deadline, no product.

Shipping is very important, sometimes more important than what you ship :)

dabinat4d ago· 5 in thread

throwaway20374d ago

    > Optimizing memory server-side directly translates to cost savings for companies.

Byamarro4d ago

That's a clever observation and is very true. Development time tho historically was also very expensive hence push for easy to work with dev stacks such as js

avarun4d ago

There's plenty of incentive if it causes your users to churn.

remus4d ago

It is typically hard to directly attribute churn though, whereas some massive EC2 instance costing you $30/day is a clear line item where cost savings can be measured easily.

znpy4d ago

Nah that simply doesn’t happen. Users routinely blame that on the hardware or on the operating system, occasionally rightfully so.

My anecdotal data point: my MacBook neo with 8 gb of ram running mac os is much snappier than my thinkpad x13g1 (ryzen 7 pro, 8c/16t+ 32gb memory) running linux.

Same user (me), same apps, same websites, same data.

I don’t really blame the apps.

kapperchino4d ago· 3 in thread

Real, there are so many low hanging fruits for optimization but no one has time to do them. And they don’t incentivize spending your time on it either.

pjc504d ago

Exactly. Customer's RAM is free to the developer.

thewhitetulip4d ago

Especially when LLMs are used to generate most of the code anyways in bigcorps

inigyou4d ago

Is there a single example of a successful LLM project apart from Claude Code?

2 more replies

hashmap4d ago

even a lot of the fancy algorithms are ways to not do something you dont need to do, it's rooting out waste all the way down.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse