https://foojayio.github.io/website/today/author/nasir-qureshi/Articles written by Nasir Qureshi on foojay.io - Friends of OpenJDKHugoen-usTue, 17 Feb 2026 15:33:56 +0000https://foojayio.github.io/website/today/optimizing-the-mongodb-java-driver-how-minor-optimizations-led-to-macro-gains/Tue, 17 Feb 2026 15:33:56 +0000https://foojayio.github.io/website/today/optimizing-the-mongodb-java-driver-how-minor-optimizations-led-to-macro-gains/<p>Co-authored by <em>Slav Babanin</em>.</p> <p><a href="https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Donald Knuth</a> {#https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/}, widely recognized as the &lsquo;father of the analysis of algorithms,&rsquo; warned against premature optimization&mdash;spending effort on code that appears inefficient but is not on the critical path. He observed that programmers often focus on the wrong 97% of the codebase. Real performance gains come from identifying and optimizing the critical 3%. But, how can you identify the critical 3%? Well, that&rsquo;s where the philosophy of &rsquo;never guess, always measure&rsquo; comes in.</p>