> Sure they should. I often spend all day on negative numbers of lines (I always say that the best code I write, is the code I don't write). You're missing the

> Sure they should. I often spend all day on negative numbers of lines (I always say that the best code I write, is the code I don't write). You're missing the point of the article. It's not about valuing quantity of code. It's about valuing minimizing the time it takes to determine what you want the code to be. If it takes you a 30 minute compile loop to add a line of code, it's also going to take a 30 minute compile loop to refactor and eliminate a line of code. The latter is actually worse. When your iteration time is high, developers will deal with it and push through as necessary to get features implemented because they have to make the software do a certain thing. But they will absolutely not struggle through a shitting iteration cycle if the only result is cleaner refactored code. If you want nice codebases, you need a nice iteration cycle.