You’ve just written a piece of code. It works. It’s complete. You’ll probably never write that exact code again—but you and your teammates will read it many times over. This is why readability matters. Good code isn’t just about making machines understand your instructions; it’s about reducing the cognitive load on the humans who will maintain and extend it.

Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, once gave an example of what he considers "good taste" in coding. He compared two implementations of item removal in a singly linked list. Both snippets work, but the second showcases how a small tweak in design can have an outsized impact on elegance and clarity.

Snippet 1 is a straightforward implementation in C, consisting of about 10 lines of code. It removes an object from the list but relies on an if-statement at the end to handle edge cases—specifically when the object being removed is at the head of the list.

Snippet 2 according to him is written in good 'taste'. The code is refactored so that the same process is applied regardless of the object’s position in the list. The conditional logic is eliminated entirely.

Why this matters imo
Refining small details in your code might seem inconsequential at first, but these incremental changes compound over time. They create codebases that are easier to debug, maintain, and extend—especially in collaborative settings where many eyes and minds interact with the same code.

Crafting clean, readable code goes beyong aesthetics -- it’s an investment in fewer bugs and better collaboration.

As you write your next piece of code, ask yourself:
1. Can this be simplified without losing clarity?
2. Are there hidden complexities that could confuse someone else (or me, six months from now)?
3. Am I making my intent as clear as possible in the code?

fin