[BeetleB]

>I'll note that from my experience as a programmer and a manager the best coders (and best code) was done by the people who "just felt this is the right way".

I'll note that from my experience as a programmer, the worst code was done by people who "just felt this is the right way".

Note that I'm not disagreeing with you. This is a classic case of confirmation bias. Looking at what is common amongst great coders/code is the first step. But that step is incomplete unless you test against crappy code. Is that feature you found in great code often present in crappy code? Then it likely has little to do with code quality...

Coding from the gut is the thing to do if you're a great coder. Not the other way round.

[coldtea]

>I'll note that from my experience as a programmer, the worst code was done by people who "just felt this is the right way".

No, the worst code is by people who just wrote it that way because they didn't know better, and who don't have any strong opinions one way or another.