[rapind]

"One should not need to have much experience in any particular language to read and understand what a particular piece of code is doing."

I'm not sure I agree with this. I think every effort should be made to keep your code readable to others with similar knowledge. However, I don't think you need to make everything readable by a junior level coder.

Maybe a decent analogy is that not all books target a 4th grade reading level. The varience of information density isn't just about saving time for those that understand it, but also for keeping you interested (or disinterested if you aren't ready for it yet). For example, reading young adult fiction in your 30s usually wouldn't keep you engrossed.

[mgkimsal]

The older and more experienced you get, the harder it is to assume others who will have to deal with the code will have "similar knowledge".

"However, I don't think you need to make everything readable by a junior level coder." I may not be a junior-level coder, but I may still be 'jr' with your particular language or framework, but have been assigned your code because you've moved on to something else.