Note quite right. The purpose of creating a computer program is to get work done. This includes, but is not limited to, telling the computer what to do. We want to maximize the amount of work done by the computer and minimize the work done by people. This implies striking the right balance between optimizing the run-time of the program and optimizing BOTH the readability AND usability of the program. When modifying a program, we have to balance effectiveness, readability, and usability. Comparing the potential benefit of a faster-running program with the cost of poor readability or usability is difficult, but (at least in business) can be done by converting all units to dollars. Dollars are then easily convertible to pizza and beer, units of measurement familiar to nearly every programmer in the world. In some cases, cryptic one-liners that shave a few milliseconds off the per-cycle run-time produce many millions of pizzas and thousands of gallons of beer annually, at the expense of a few pies and a six-pack in maintenance per year. Who cares if that code is hard to read? We have PIZZA and BEER! But saving a slice and a half-pint at the expense of an office pizza party .... that's just a travesty. And don't get me started on all that pre-packaged stuff that costs nothing to install, runs really fast, and is super-maintainable -- but that costs the end-user all of Papa John's and most of Sam Adams just to make a few photocopies. Feh.