In this age of contention and conversation around what good code should look like, when a context is being built for humans and AI tools to work with it, this entry looks at one of the qualities of good code that both audiences will thank you for: Clarity.
Write Yesterday-You Code: Clarity Over Cleverness
Code is not a stage for your one-man show. It is not a puzzle box designed to prove your genius to the next poor soul who opens it. It is a tool, meant to work, meant to last.
Cleverness is a sugar high. Clarity is bread and water. And when you come back to your code tomorrow—or worse, six months later—you’ll pray for bread and water.
“If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write. But choose what is plain and straight.”
Yesterday-proof code is simple. It says what it means. It does not wink at you. It does not demand a decoder ring. You can read it with a hangover, with jet lag, or with your boss breathing down your neck, and it still makes sense.
A lot of developers secretly want applause for elegance that borders on trickery. That’s ego. That’s you writing for the today you—the sharp, caffeinated, clever one. But tomorrow you? They’re a mess. They forgot why the abstraction exists. They curse the nested lambdas. They resent you for hiding a landmine under a code pun.
Write for them. Write for yesterday you. Because they are always there. They are slower, more naive, more distracted, more unclear what was in your head. They are the one who will actually have to keep this ship floating.
Focus on clarity, explicitness, and simplicity. That means fewer flourishes, fewer acronyms, fewer in-jokes, and the courage to be obvious.
Cleverness is a flex. Clarity is a gift. Give that gift to you, tomorrow.
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