QuixoticgeekApr 4

RE: https://caneandable.social/@WeirdWriter/116346826982245032

Even among programmers the knowledge of how a computer works is largely missing. This means that code is often not optimised for performance. If you don't know how the CPU works, you're not going to understand the simple things you can do to improve your code's performance.

I worry when I talk to programmers and mention things like "TLB miss" and they don't know wtf it means.

A boot camp might teach you to code in 10 weeks. But it won't teach you to understand in ten weeks.

Show threadDavid Cantrell 🏏Apr 4

@quixoticgeek I don't really expect most modern devs to know how modern CPUs work, because modern CPUs are fucking witchcraft. Performance optimisation at the sort of level where you actually need to know the CPU is a very specialist skill.

If you want to delve into the non-Euclidean horrors then I recommend https://xania.org/202511/advent-of-compiler-optimisation

Introducing the Advent of Compiler Optimisations 2025 — Matt Godbolt’s blog

Announcing AoCO 2025 - daily December posts about compiler optimisations

Show threadQuixoticgeek
@DrHyde agreed. But simple stuff like understanding basic memory management and TLB and the like is IMHO just basic knowledge for programming.
Apr 4 at 6:59pmWeb
Show threadDavid Cantrell 🏏Apr 5
@quixoticgeek even that is more than I would expect from a normal dev. Most of the slow code I see is because someone is doing unnecessary work most of which will be thrown away, or doing unnecessary I/O, or they're blocking on some response and just sitting twiddling their thumbs when they could be getting on with something else.