Yes, agreed about the counter-argument. See my nearby comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16064412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16064412

Yes, agreed about the counter-argument. See my nearby comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16064412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16064412 I think the important thing is that modularity (breaking up longer functions into shorter ones) helps, but only if not done blindly. One has to spend some time doing it, since there are many possible ways it can be done, and some of them will be better than others. So it can pay off in the long term, but only if one is willing to put in the effort and time, and be ready to throw away some not-so-good attempts. I've done this sometimes and seen that it does help.