Agree with you there & appreciate the clarification. I would only add that many of those who obsess with optimization and "clever" programming, have never had

Agree with you there & appreciate the clarification. I would only add that many of those who obsess with optimization and "clever" programming, have never had to go back and maintain that code. I've looked at far too many modules and said "what was this idiot thinking?" before realizing it was my own work from years' prior. With a bit of that perspective I now write code favoring clarity over cleverness/performance. And if it is unavoidable to write something dense, I document the hell out of it. But you're right, there is a definitely a culture of writing impenetrable code full of clever & cute little tricks of the sort that come back and bite the author later. Prevalent in the C world, and I see it also in equal measure in Perl.