Comment by johnmwilkinson

I think clever is being used in two different ways, in that case.

In the original quote, “clever” refers to the syntax, where they way the code was constructed makes it difficult to decipher.

I believe your interpretation (and perhaps the post’s, as well) is about the design. Often to make a very simple, elegant design (what pieces exist and how they interact) you need to think really hard and creatively, aka be clever.

Programming as a discipline has a problem with using vague terms. “Clean” code, “clever” code, “complex” code; what are we trying to convey when we talk about these things?

I came up with a term I like: Mean Time to Comprehension, or MTC. MTC is the average amount of time it takes for a programmer familiar with the given language, syntax, libraries, tooling, and structure to understand a particular block of code. I find that thinking about code in those terms is much more useful than thinking about it in terms of something like “clever”.

(For anyone interested, I wrote a book that explores the rules for writing code that is meant to reduce MTC: The Elements of Code https://elementsofcode.io)