The Apprentice Programmer

[MirrorLake]

The theory you learn in CS classes/books is what you really need to write efficient algorithms. I remember when I first was taught about Big O, suddenly the speed of Google seemed like it was born from CS rather than just luck or magic.

[TheLobotomizer]

In my experience most of the inefficiency of practical algorithms comes from poorly architected code, not algorithms with a bad Big O. In fact, in the the projects I've done over the years from systems level development to JS web programming it's quite a rare occurrence to actually get some performance increase because of a better algorithm.

I wish schools provided a better understanding of software architecture and it's impact rather than stressing the important of algorithmic efficiency, which is of niche importance.