I was under the impression that using a class (with `__slots__` set) or a tuple is generally more performant than using dictionaries. At least, I assume that's why he didn't mention dictionaries.
What a class buys you is behavior and a semi-defined interface.
[1] - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/472000/python-slots
Though I'm not sure `__slots__` actually saves any time, as it's really a space optimization. I've tried it before for hot code and even seen very slight (probably not significant) slowdowns.