Meta-post: Performance

I plan to take some measures soon. I may stand up a snappy little Linode, but they are pretty high-maintenance in terms of hands-on time. I may switch to DreamHost's dedicated WordPress solution, but the resource that over-demands is money.
I could go to WordPress.com... but I was on Blogger before and other-hosted blogging is no fun.
If you have dealt with this, please bark at me about it in the comments.