But, sometimes you can improve built in functions. I found that using a custom (but simple) string-to-int function in golang is a bit quicker than strconv.formatInt() for decimal numbers.
So, there's that.
Python isn't really supposed to be geared towards performance. I like the language, but only see articles like this as resume fodder.
Not super important, but i think it's worth calling out. Some of us program because it's fun. We dig into problems like this because it scratches an itch. We share in the hopes of interacting with like-minded individuals. Not everything is about resumes.
The code wasn't the authors, and what's more it's just an example to talk about the bytecode. Everyone knows `min(some_list)` is faster and more Pythonic.
This is a very interesting article and probably exposed a few people to a few interesting Python internals.
But, I would like to see the author use a for loop. I'm not why anyone would use a while loop of they know the constraints.