It’s been written about hundreds of times, but I still find it hard to underestimate the value of code that is both self documenting and intuitive to maintain.
Not my code, my code is crap. Except what I wrote today. Everything I wrote yesterday and before is pure junk.
Most code is. Even code that looks readable at first will likely be crap once you start digging in. It’s always a tradeoff. You can’t maintain superior design while specs keep changing with a team that has different ideas of what clean code actually is. Everyone has different limits as to what corners can be cut in the pursuit of clean code. The dirty dish tolerance level.
It’s an unachievable goal, but the willingness to keep trying and refactoring is hugely important.