>While the points the author makes are valid, the fact that it gets bandied about as an out-of-context sound bite results in a lot of code getting written with a complete disregard for any optimisation whatsoever.

This is still preferable to premature optimization.

What I really can't stand is developers who tell me that this piece of code that already runs in production with no complaints is 'slow'.

And I ask them "well, did you profile it?".

"Well, no, but..."