Why clarity beats clever code every time

Early on, I used to write clever code. Short logic Less lines Smart tricks It felt good. Until I had to debug it 2 weeks later. Or someone else touched it. Or the business flow changed. Then that 'clever' code became the problem. Hard to read Hard to trace Hard to change Nothing was wrong with the logic. Everything was wrong with understanding it. We changed how we write: Make flows obvious Write code that explains itself Prefer boring over smart Optimize only after behavior is stable...