- With F#, the list often feels like the default choice of data structure. It is immutable and hence easy to reason about, however its use can come at a great cost. If you are using lists to process large amounts of data, then a lot of time will be spent creating objects and garbage collecting. When I stress tested lists with F#, it became clear that this can cause a major synchronization issue when parallel processing. In fact, I was often seeing programs written in parallel which were effectively just context switching between threads rather than running in parallel.
When the gods gift you with the type of talent Robin had, there’s a price to pay, there always is — it doesn’t come from nothing, It comes from … probably deep problems inside, a concern, all sorts of fears, and yet he could always channel those things and turn them into something gold … I think that just comes with the territory, frankly.
Terry Gilliam on the ‘miracle of Robin Williams’, BBC News