Re:O-notation considered harmful (use Analytic Combinatorics...
by meaty on Sunday February 10, 2013 @04:53PM
(#5198094)
I think this is the most elegant set of reasons.
We actually test incoming staff to make sure they are aware of complexity by giving them programming tasks that they can hang themselves with by using the wrong data structures or algorithms.
Big-O applies to a hell of a lot more than just sorting algorithms, and no language lets you ignore the varying degrees of complexity that come from the choices you make.
Good developers consider Big-O implications all the time, without explicitly thinking about it. They don't ignore it.