Dive into a conference talk from GopherCon 2020 that explores advanced techniques for optimizing performance in Go at massive scale. Learn how to design and implement a formula evaluation system, drawing parallels with Excel's functionality. Discover the process of parsing and evaluating formulas, then explore two innovative solutions for significant performance enhancements. Gain insights into creating an Intermediate Language, building a simple Virtual Machine, and leveraging the Go Plugin system to generate and load compiled code at runtime. Demystify concepts like virtual machines and compilers, understanding their practical applications in reducing storage needs, simplifying complexity, and dramatically boosting performance. Follow along as the speaker covers topics including lexing, parsing, spreadsheet calculation engines, performance monitoring and improvement, compile nodes, VM runtime, and valuable lessons learned from implementing these optimization strategies.