Well low-level languages like assembler will run fast. But nowadays the optimizing compilers of high-level languages assure that one can write fast code in there too but often one needs to check the optimize button in the compiler options. But whatever language one uses, it is the responsibility of the programmer to write good and fast code, though small optimizations like placing instructions, that do not change in a loop, out of the loop, are done by the compiler.
These days compilers are often very advanced and can eliminate most of the overhead caused by function calls, data type checking, object class verification. In the past, after writing a program, one could adjust the order of statements and use little tricks to double or triple the speed of your program, but those times are over because the compiler takes over this task. Sometimes one cannot understand why certain speed tricks do not work anymore, like replacing a floating point number by a long integer as pipe-lined processors can handle floating points almost as fast as long integers these days.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.