Absolutely. This has been discussed here quite a bit (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=120614530 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=120614530). In re

Absolutely. This has been discussed here quite a bit (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=120614530 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=120614530). In real life it's often visible when you have methods that take one or more flags to tell them how to behave. Fixing involves duplicating the method - one copy for calls where the flag is true, one for where it is false. Then simplifying, then repeating. The code that falls out at the end is often dramatically simpler than what was there before. It makes me wonder about some of these programming aphorisms - they only seem to work if you are already experienced enough to know to take them with a pinch of salt.