writing code as cleverly as possible doesn't imply it's at the developers limit of understanding--just that the code cannot be expressed more cleverly. Asking

writing code as cleverly as possible doesn't imply it's at the developers limit of understanding--just that the code cannot be expressed more cleverly. Asking the question, how will you ever debug it, causes the developer pause and hopefully realize there will be a learning curve when maintenance dues come. I guess I disagree with the conclusion of your flavor of the quote.