When you're new to programming, or self-taught with an emphasis on those topics that are directly relevant to your current project, it's easy to skip learning about analyzing the complexity of algorithms. But when your pet project runs too slowly, you find yourself wondering if there's anything you can do to speed it up.

This talk will minimize the scary math which often accompanies formal computer science education, by using concrete examples of what the mysterious greek letters mean and how understanding them can help you. It will also include an overview of the profiling tools which professionals use to analyze real code and understand its performance problems.