I think there is another big issue related to Clean Code (and friends) that is rarely discussed. There are two types of design methods: those that help you to

I think there is another big issue related to Clean Code (and friends) that is rarely discussed. There are two types of design methods: those that help you to generate a solution to the problem and those that only help you to optimize a solution, in some dimension, once you have one. Clean Code guidelines clearly belong to the latter. When you first write code you should not think of Clean Code. It will distract you from solving the problem at hand, while not providing any help in solving it. Only after you have a correct working solution you should consider Clean Code and other optimization guidelines. (Code Complete is much better IMO.) Knowing when often pays better than knowing how.