"premature optimization" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Donald Knuth",
        "nocap": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "coined by Donald Knuth",
      "name": "coin"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "It was first coined by Donald Knuth in his 1974 monograph The Art of Computer Programming which won a Turing Award.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "premature optimizations",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
      },
      "expansion": "premature optimization (countable and uncountable, plural premature optimizations)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Programming",
          "orig": "en:Programming",
          "parents": [
            "Computing",
            "Software engineering",
            "Technology",
            "Computer science",
            "Engineering",
            "Software",
            "All topics",
            "Sciences",
            "Applied sciences",
            "Media",
            "Fundamental",
            "Communication"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1973, Donald Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming:",
          "text": "The real problem is that programmers have spent far too much time worrying about efficiency in the wrong places and at the wrong times; premature optimization is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "text": "2016, Amitt Mahajan, Why you’re mispricing your VR seed round, VentureBeat\nSimilar to engineering, premature optimization can cause you to focus on items that don’t materially affect your outcome and can divert your attention away from those that do."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The act of wasting resources on optimising source code that does not represent a significant bottleneck."
      ],
      "hypernyms": [
        {
          "word": "optimization"
        }
      ],
      "id": "en-premature_optimization-en-noun-KYxifwkU",
      "links": [
        [
          "programming",
          "programming#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "source code",
          "source code"
        ],
        [
          "bottleneck",
          "bottleneck"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(programming) The act of wasting resources on optimising source code that does not represent a significant bottleneck."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "premature optimisation"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "programming",
        "sciences"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "The Art of Computer Programming",
        "Turing Award"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "premature optimization"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Donald Knuth",
        "nocap": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "coined by Donald Knuth",
      "name": "coin"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "It was first coined by Donald Knuth in his 1974 monograph The Art of Computer Programming which won a Turing Award.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "premature optimizations",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
      },
      "expansion": "premature optimization (countable and uncountable, plural premature optimizations)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hypernyms": [
    {
      "word": "optimization"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English coinages",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms coined by Donald Knuth",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "en:Programming"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1973, Donald Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming:",
          "text": "The real problem is that programmers have spent far too much time worrying about efficiency in the wrong places and at the wrong times; premature optimization is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "text": "2016, Amitt Mahajan, Why you’re mispricing your VR seed round, VentureBeat\nSimilar to engineering, premature optimization can cause you to focus on items that don’t materially affect your outcome and can divert your attention away from those that do."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The act of wasting resources on optimising source code that does not represent a significant bottleneck."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "programming",
          "programming#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "source code",
          "source code"
        ],
        [
          "bottleneck",
          "bottleneck"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(programming) The act of wasting resources on optimising source code that does not represent a significant bottleneck."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "programming",
        "sciences"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "The Art of Computer Programming",
        "Turing Award"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "premature optimisation"
    }
  ],
  "word": "premature optimization"
}