> The real problem is that programmers have spent far too much time worrying about efficiency in the wrong places and at the wrong times; premature optimization is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming.
That was published the same year and month as the first paper, so I don't know which gets priority for any attributions.
Bear in mind that the given quote is only the most memorable part of Knuth's longer statement:
> We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil.
> Yet we should not pass up our opportunities in that critical 3%.
FWIW, I've read that Knuth attributes it to Hoare, and Hoare attributes it to Knuth.
Looking now, I see that Knuth also wrote a similar comment in "Computer Programming as an Art", at http://faculty.salisbury.edu/~xswang/Research/Papers/turning... :
> The real problem is that programmers have spent far too much time worrying about efficiency in the wrong places and at the wrong times; premature optimization is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming.
That was published the same year and month as the first paper, so I don't know which gets priority for any attributions.