diff --git a/changelog/@unreleased/pr-870.v2.yml b/changelog/@unreleased/pr-870.v2.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a8f221b24
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/@unreleased/pr-870.v2.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+type: improvement
+improvement:
+  description: Simplify Tracer.shouldObserve to avoid JIT friction
+  links:
+  - https://github.com/palantir/tracing-java/pull/870
diff --git a/tracing/src/main/java/com/palantir/tracing/Tracer.java b/tracing/src/main/java/com/palantir/tracing/Tracer.java
index a54b26f66..840068c2e 100644
--- a/tracing/src/main/java/com/palantir/tracing/Tracer.java
+++ b/tracing/src/main/java/com/palantir/tracing/Tracer.java
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@
 import com.palantir.logsafe.Safe;
 import com.palantir.logsafe.SafeArg;
 import com.palantir.logsafe.UnsafeArg;
-import com.palantir.logsafe.exceptions.SafeIllegalArgumentException;
 import com.palantir.logsafe.exceptions.SafeIllegalStateException;
 import com.palantir.logsafe.exceptions.SafeRuntimeException;
 import com.palantir.logsafe.logger.SafeLogger;
@@ -86,16 +85,8 @@ private static Trace createTrace(
     }
 
     private static boolean shouldObserve(Observability observability) {
-        switch (observability) {
-            case SAMPLE:
-                return true;
-            case DO_NOT_SAMPLE:
-                return false;
-            case UNDECIDED:
-                return sampler.sample();
-        }
-
-        throw new SafeIllegalArgumentException("Unknown observability", SafeArg.of("observability", observability));
+        // Simplified implementation of 'switch(observability) {' for fast inlining (30 bytes)
+        return observability == Observability.SAMPLE || (observability == Observability.UNDECIDED && sampler.sample());
     }
 
     /**