Wha?

I'd like to take a quote from Matt Hackett completely out of context

which method is more readable is typically subjective, making that irrelevant

and wonder about it for a bit.

In the context I ripped that from, Matt was comparing "if" and "switch" (within the bigger context of JavaScript) and he went on to explicate the balances between efficiency and readability (and to quote his colleague Douglas Crockford, which I'll reproduce here because it's a good quote with too few gits

In chosing how to structure a program, the first priority has to be clarity of expression. From clarity comes correctness and maintainability. Subordinating clarity to save milliseconds should be discouraged. That is the wrong motivation).

Steve said

it is usually nearly impossible to [improve software] because it's so hard to understand what the authors meant when they wrote it. ... it also tends to be illegible simply because most programmers either have no idea how to write legible maintainable code, or if they do know how, they just don't bother. Or both.

Mark said

Squeek is a weird, buggy, undocumented mess and for the life of me, I can't figure out how to make a real application in it. But I keep firing it up just to let it blow my mind. Even though I have no idea how to create a freakin' dialog box in it, I can tell that this is how we should be writing software.

Is the internet back yet ?

The internet came back half an hour after I left for the office but the water was gone by the time I got home again. Got a few hours kip, woke up this "morning" and my wife was gone. Got a slice of toast, the peanut butter was gone. Tried asking you but I don't think you were reddi yet.

But I keep coming back to the same old questions:

When you get right down to it, what've you got, right, down, up a bit, more, There, aaaah, ... ?
Why do my socks have big holes when I always compost them at the first tear ?
Why has my retirement-fund halved the fees today, if banks are in such shit ?
Why does the screen always go black at the start of writing a new program ?
Why am I so much better at sorting this list than most algorithms I know ?
   Wow ! That line was typed in at the best guess place, before I knew ...
How many visitors do you need to see what's going on outside the prison ?
Which of these questions will you take as the subject line of an email ?
Who is converging on The Palace of Culture, panting and slobbering ?
How do you design a brain when all you've got control of is genes ?
How many Ministers for Energy does it take to change a light bulb ?
Why is Natural Language mischaracterized as inherently ambiguous ?
How can you expect to be taken seriously (Extended Danse Mix) ?
Why do men need nipples, is it some kind of memento matris ?
When you get down to the wood today, what will you saw ?
Why is petrol back down to less than 1 euro per litre ?
How many Big Macs does it take to sink an empire ?
How does it work when you program in English ?
How can one live well in a badly-run world ?
When do the floor-cleaning robots arrive ?
Whatever will become of the likely lads ?
How many angels can be fit into a PIN ?
Where have all the children gone ?
Which are the magical languages ?
What were we wanting without W ?
Who would you like to beat (up) ? 
Does my thumb look big in text ?
Who are you talking to, inside ?
How much do you miss the goal ?
Sorry, what were you saying ?
What do you do, in the bath ? 
But I'm mumbling again't I ?
How much do I stink by now ?
Why do crocodiles crawl ?
How to get rich, slowly ?
What was I looking for ?
Have a dream on me !
Onde está o Oisín ?
Where's the craic ?
You want it when ?
Why am I here ?
Why coo ?
WTF ?

Missing the point

Mark Lutz remembered to "import this", but forgot to actually read it before announcing: "In Python, we say that explicit is better than implicit (that is, EIBTI)"

Premature abbreviation is the root of all evil.