diff --git a/README.org b/README.org
index faa17ae..59a722a 100755
--- a/README.org
+++ b/README.org
@@ -415,6 +415,7 @@ Following is a subset of the many places I've learnt from.
 - [cite:@christensen2020erase]
 - [cite:@ayats2024dropping]
 - [cite:@zaynetdinov2024you]
+- [cite:@schafer2017advanced]
 - [[https://prelude.emacsredux.com/en/stable/][Emacs Prelude]]
 - [[https://github.com/doomemacs/doomemacs][Doom Emacs]]
 - [[https://cce.whatthefuck.computer/cce][Ryan Rix's Complete Computing Environment]]
diff --git a/users/crumb/programs/emacs/early-init.el b/users/crumb/programs/emacs/early-init.el
index 7fcb10d..030db43 100644
--- a/users/crumb/programs/emacs/early-init.el
+++ b/users/crumb/programs/emacs/early-init.el
@@ -2,3 +2,10 @@
 
 ;; Disable package.el; we use Straight.
 (setq package-enable-at-startup nil)
+
+;; Enable use-package statistics for the sake of start-up profiling.
+(setq use-package-compute-statistics t)
+
+(setq gc-cons-threshold
+      ;; (4 gibibytes)
+      (* 4 (expt 1024 3)))
diff --git a/users/crumb/programs/emacs/init-straight.el b/users/crumb/programs/emacs/init-straight.el
index 1ca3392..54bc76f 100644
--- a/users/crumb/programs/emacs/init-straight.el
+++ b/users/crumb/programs/emacs/init-straight.el
@@ -28,6 +28,6 @@
         (with-current-buffer url-buffer
           (goto-char (point-max))
           (eval-print-last-sexp))))
-    (load-file bootstrap-file))
+    (load bootstrap-file nil 'nomessage))
 
   (setq straight-use-package-by-default t))
diff --git a/users/crumb/programs/emacs/modules/syd-evil.el b/users/crumb/programs/emacs/modules/syd-evil.el
index 52261bc..ceae1de 100644
--- a/users/crumb/programs/emacs/modules/syd-evil.el
+++ b/users/crumb/programs/emacs/modules/syd-evil.el
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@
   :commands (evilnc-comment-operator
              evilnc-inner-comment
              evilnc-outer-commenter)
+  :defer t
   :bind (:map evil-normal-state-map ("#" . evilnc-comment-operator)
          :map evil-visual-state-map ("#" . evilnc-comment-operator)
          :map evil-inner-text-objects-map ("c" . evilnc-inner-comment)
@@ -101,7 +102,8 @@
   ;; 'g=' is a bit more comfortable than 'g+', whilst preserving the analogy.
   ;; ('=' is '+' modulo shift)
   :bind (:map evil-normal-state-map ("g=" . 'evil-numbers/inc-at-pt)
-         :map evil-normal-state-map ("g-" . 'evil-numbers/dec-at-pt)))
+         :map evil-normal-state-map ("g-" . 'evil-numbers/dec-at-pt))
+  :defer t)
 
 ;; Tree-sitter queries → Evil text objects.
 (use-package evil-textobj-tree-sitter
@@ -121,6 +123,7 @@
 (use-package evil-terminal-cursor-changer
   ;; This package is only useful in the terminal.
   :if (not (display-graphic-p))
+  :defer t
   :hook (on-first-input . evil-terminal-cursor-changer-activate))
 
 ;; Automatic alignment in region, by regexp.
@@ -152,6 +155,7 @@
 ;; the text `two words`, but the point is over `two`, Evil will search for
 ;; `two`.  `evil-visualstar' will instead search for `two words`.
 (use-package evil-visualstar
+  :defer t
   :bind (:map evil-visual-state-map
          ("*" . evil-visualstar/begin-search-forward)))