Programming is legitimate and necessary academic endeavour.
We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil.
An algorithm must be seen to be believed.
Meta-design is much more difficult than design; it's easier to draw something than to explain how to draw it.
There's ways to amuse yourself while doing things and thats how I look at efficency.
AI has by now succeeded in doing essentially everything that requires 'thinking' but has failed to do most of what people and animals do 'without thinking'-that, somehow, is much harder.