the.com/precomputation
do the hard thinking now so future-you can be lazy and fast later.
means the technique of calculating and storing results in advance so you can just look them up instead of redoing the work.
from from latin prae (before) plus computare (to reckon) — computer scientists formalized it as a core time-space tradeoff, trading memory for speed.
classic examplemultiplication tables are precomputation for kids
tradeofftrades storage space for raw speed
chess enginesopening books are precomputed move sequences
downsideuseless the moment inputs change unexpectedly