There's no reason for software to be slow anymore

Dan Luu argues that AI has slashed the cost of performance optimization, making it trivial to apply techniques once reserved for the largest projects. He demonstrates with a regex engine that compiles native code on the fly, a multi-threaded Azul AI that beats all comers, and a case where Claude outperformed a human performance engineer. The result: software can be dramatically faster, and there's no excuse for sluggishness.