I often weigh the value of comments -- I used to write more, now I write fewer -- by weighing odds of utility against decay into misinformation. Comments convey

I often weigh the value of comments -- I used to write more, now I write fewer -- by weighing odds of utility against decay into misinformation. Comments conveying something of high utility that is fundamental to the program and unlikely to change make the cut. I save most of my remarks for commit messages, which are understood to be contemporaneous. This method requires the average commit message quality be high, otherwise, people are unlikely to think to run blame on the file, even though most text editors can do so effortlessly.