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Maintainability

Kernighan's Law

Complexity Debt.

The article

If

"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it."

Then

Code "cleverness" is a liability, not an asset. Write code that your future self, sleep-deprived at 3 AM, can still understand in 6 months.

Unless

KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)

Source

Brian W. Kernighan & P. J. Plauger, The Elements of Programming Style, 2nd ed. (1978).

Go to the source

See also