good programmers dont need to optimize

There is a lot of talk about code optimisation and I dont think people realise that good programmers dont have to optimise their code as a separate step. That with modern compilers, operating systems and CPU pipelining, the only optimisation that has to be done is with algorithms and data structures which the programmer should already be using automatically as part of the design process. For example programmers used to need to optimise for things like barrel shifters, but modern CPU architecture has made that all obsolete as the CPU does that kind of optimisation for you now. Using asm is still relevant for things like device drivers, but on an OS with modern compilers there is no way a programmer is going to beat modern compiler optimisation by doing assembly by hand. The OS abstracts away all the hardware and memory details that programmers used to have to manage by hand. So this is the golden age of programming, where true programming skill counts for making fast programs and not second guessing hardware intricacies.

>>24

who is the code monkey, the one who spends a year on a single application on a single platform and then spends another two years porting the application to 6 other platforms and maintaining each port, or the one who uses suboptimal code to implement the singularity which then re-implements itself in 6 hours in optimal machine code, produces all applications requested by humankind, completely eliminates programming as a possible means of income for humans, uses itself to further develop and advance itself, and eventually completely eliminates humanity and forms a new robotic society that peacefully coexists with animals.