@jackeric @bluewinds @delta_vee @kirakira @glyph Only half seriously, but therefore also not totally *unseriously*:
Zip fuel.
If you've never heard of it, there's good reason. But it did attempt to address a legitimate concern at the time: getting more power out of a given volume of jet fuel. Just put highly reactive boron compounds in it. Specifically, *pyrophoric* boron compounds, which don't even need high heat to ignite.
The fuel did indeed produce more power, but it was very toxic (both in raw form and after combustion), and it seriously corroded jet engine parts, leading to an enormous maintenance headache for any aircraft that tried to use the fuel.
(Maintenance headaches ... sound familiar?)
A very good example of what can happen when "speed of one specific component", whether airplane flights or writing code, overwhelmingly dominates a thought process.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_fuel