There's a big difference between "what"/"how" and "why" comments. "This increments a variable" is a stupid comment because the code already says it, but a note

There's a big difference between "what"/"how" and "why" comments. "This increments a variable" is a stupid comment because the code already says it, but a note such as "I'm using this particular data structure/algorithm/etc. because ..., even though ... seems like a better choice" can speak volumes. It's hard to make code itself clearly convey intent (careful naming is the main way), and it's the first thing to get buried by verbose code. If you have documentation about the design of the system and write reasonably clear code, you can document sparsely. (Having fewer comments also gives those present added emphasis.) As with most engineering, it's more about trade-offs than hard-and-fast rules, though.