Ahem... the comment I was responding to said that he outcompetes everyone by being pragmatic. Not using a tool that would yield better productivity for himself

Ahem... the comment I was responding to said that he outcompetes everyone by being pragmatic. Not using a tool that would yield better productivity for himself doesn't count as outcompeting people. It counts as working as part of a team. Part of my point is that the idea of out-competing people is a joke to begin with. You succeed with your entire team. You fail with your entire team. Secondly, I dispute the notion that clever, compact code and extendable, maintainable code are at odds. Code becomes extensible by simple virtue of there being less of it. I do agree that clever, compact code is at odds with one thing: someone else looking smart. Do people write clever, compact code to look smart, or do you dismiss it to look smart? Because my experience is that it's almost always the latter. If I really did write the code in an unmaintainable way, they usually have more precise criticism than "It's too clever and compact."