219
Python Performance: Why 'if not list' is 2x Faster Than Using len()
(blog.codingconfessions.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
There are decades of articles on c++ optimizations, that say "use empty() instead of size()", which is same as here.
except for c++ it was just to avoid a single function call, not extra indirection. also on modern compilers size() will get inlined and ultimate instructions generated by the compiler will likely be the same