amortize "cheap" over the expected lifetime of the code. If man hours to write is the primary criteria then you'll have an uncommented mess of crap. I doubt t

amortize "cheap" over the expected lifetime of the code. If man hours to write is the primary criteria then you'll have an uncommented mess of crap. I doubt the author means for this to be taken to the extreme. It makes for a good sound bite, but there is no simple rule of thumb when deciding how much effort to allocate to various parts of a project.