Top 10 list

First make it work, then make it fast

This is true even if you are certain that a piece of code is really important and that it will be a principal bottleneck in your system. Get the system going first with as simple a design as possible. Then, if it isn't going fast enough, profile it. You'll almost always discover that the bottleneck you thought you had isn't really the most critical problem. This will let you prioritize application optimization tasks appropriately and thus save your time for the really important stuff.

Previous: #1 - Elegance always pays off

Next: #3 - Remember the "divide and conquer" principle

Elegance always pays off	Use bare bones methodology
First make it work, then make it fast	Automate everything
Remember the "divide and conquer" principle	Write test code early
Separate the class creator from the class user (client programmer)	Get abstract
Name classes intelligently	An indirection should have a meaning