If you open and close LR during the day more than several times, you’ll quickly notice that small catalogs open faster… much faster than big catalogs. Doh! It takes over the entire screen, and sits there for about 20 secs while 30,000 images load.
I’m now thinking that I should really split my catalog into several and probably by year. Perhaps when I’m rich as Croesus, I’ll have a computer dedicated to running LR 24 hours a day, with my catalog always open. Perhaps.