Knuth says in "coders at work" at page 580
Combinatorial algorithms are fascinating because one good idea can save
you ten orders of magnitude in running time. But I don’t sneer at ideas that
save you twenty percent when you’re doing it a trillion times. Because if you
can save a hundred nanoseconds in a loop that’s being done a trillion times,
I think you’re saving a day. If the code is going to be used a lot it can really
pay off so you’ve got to go to subtle tricks that aren’t easy to understand.
Combinatorial algorithms are fascinating because one good idea can save
you ten orders of magnitude in running time. But I don’t sneer at ideas that
save you twenty percent when you’re doing it a trillion times. Because if you
can save a hundred nanoseconds in a loop that’s being done a trillion times,
I think you’re saving a day. If the code is going to be used a lot it can really
pay off so you’ve got to go to subtle tricks that aren’t easy to understand.
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