I spent weeks optimizing a JavaScript program running on my NVMe SSD with 2.4 billion records, and I finally found out what was slowing it down - me! In a nutshell, I discovered that benchmarking others' code or taking shortcuts can lead to false optimizations. By doing my own benchmarks, controlling the environment (temperature), and prioritizing readability over speed, I achieved significant performance improvements. Don't trust others' claims; do your own benchmarks.

Are you ready to build a modern web service that's scalable, efficient, and reliable? In this series, we'll take a deep dive into designing a system that can handle large volumes of traffic, process complex requests, and respond quickly to user queries. We'll explore the key concepts behind building such a system, including async IO, multithreading, and resource-friendly design. We'll also discuss how to use existing technologies like Haproxy for load balancing and how to implement a connection pool to manage incoming and outgoing requests. Whether you're building an API or a microservices-based architecture, this series will provide you with practical insights and design principles to help you create a robust and scalable web service that meets the demands of modern web applications.