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This works because we've arranged for the nodes to be sequential in memory, if we have the luxury of doing that then we could use an array instead of a linked list. Is there a scenario where this value speculation trick would work, where we /don't/ have this luxury?

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Given the nature of branch prediction, I’d expect it would still help dramatically in the case where the list was almost entirely sequential, which seems a bit more plausible.

Agree; if a mispredict costs 15-20 cycles and a predict saves 4 cycles, does that mean we break even around 1/4-1/3 sequential?

I could imagine behaviors like this happening with object pools, though it does still feel a bit contrived.

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