Clever Not Smart

Clever Not Smart
cpp-memes, optimization-memes, vector-memes, premature-optimization-memes, standards-committee-memes | ProgrammerHumor.io

You know that feeling when you think you're being galaxy-brained by micro-optimizing something, only to discover you've actually created a legendary footgun? That's vector<bool> in C++.

Someone on the standards committee thought "Hey, let's make vector<bool> store each boolean as a single bit instead of a byte to save memory!" Sounds brilliant, right? Wrong. Because now it doesn't behave like other vectors—you can't get actual references to elements, it breaks templates, and it violates the principle of least surprise harder than finding out your "senior developer" doesn't know what a pointer is.

The C++ standards committee literally admitted this was a mistake. When the people who invented the thing tell you it was a bad idea, you know someone got a little too clever for their own good. Sometimes the straightforward solution of using a whole byte per bool is the right call. Premature optimization strikes again!

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