Surely you'd agree that there is a spectrum of shoddiness (and hence required maintenance) of code? The specific example of shoddy code given in the book is th

Surely you'd agree that there is a spectrum of shoddiness (and hence required maintenance) of code? The specific example of shoddy code given in the book is that of a programmer gradually replacing a completely ineffectual algorithm written by an incompetent academic who also happened to be his boss. The algorithm was designed to "mimic speech" (this part is not very clear in the book) and the programmer replaces it with Eliza-like heuristics. You should read the book before judging it so harshly.