I think it's fair to call it a complex problem, if referring to the task itself, of creating performant software (which I assume is what he did). I agree with otabdeveloper in general. I'm learning C++, and over the past year there has been many occasions where I've found myself dumbfounded by patterns in the language. But, in 99% of the cases, the outcome is that the patterns are there for a reason. And the reason is performance.