On: Why GNU grep is fast (2010)

[Someone]

There is a third one, at low level: make it do something else.

For example, programmer requests a multiplication, compiler generates a shift; programmer requests a division, compiler generates a multiplication; programmer specifies a switch, compiler generates a jump table.

[pmiller2 → Someone]

I'd argue that's just a variation of doing less, in the same way that e.g. vectorization is a variation of parallelism.

[mtdewcmu → pmiller2]

The same concept applies to transportation. How to get around faster: take shorter routes, and take all the stuff you're going to need on the first trip.