What are the implications of running python with the optimize flag?

Question

I cannot seem to find a good simple explanation of what python does differently when running with the -O or optimize flag.

Answer 1

assert statements are completely eliminated, as are statement blocks of the form if __debug__: ... (so you can put your debug code in such statements blocks and just run with -O to avoid that debug code).

With -OO, in addition, docstrings are also eliminated.