I think every good programmer has these rules of thumb, from most important to less important: 1. Make it so you'll understand it in 2 minutes after being away

I think every good programmer has these rules of thumb, from most important to less important: 1. Make it so you'll understand it in 2 minutes after being away for a year. Positive side effect: it's very readable for your colleagues. 2. Make it brief. 3. Make it fast. 4. Make it pretty (although often times readable + brief code is pretty but obviously it's subjective).