[atomicity]

The author seems to be say in the article that writing readable code, at least for yourself, is still an important goal. I think they are arguing against why a writer shouldn't be expected to take it further.

For example, should a new grad be able to read your code without help? Should a 5 year old? At some point, you are spending more time writing design docs, refactoring the code, simplifying the tests, and gathering learning resources than you are just writing code that works.

Newer engineers rarely hear about how much they need to learn to read good code, and how much disagreement there is about what good code looks like. As a result it is easy to get into the mindset that "surprising" or "complex" code is bad. Instead, it would be a lot better if engineers are encouraged from the start to see reading code as a challenge. Nobody starts off knowing grep, folder organization conventions, go-to-definition shortcuts, and architectural design patterns needed to understand certain pieces of code.

To improve yourself, you are better off focusing on writing code, but at the organizational level, it's better for the team if people are willing to assume that reading code and writing readable code aren't an easy tasks.