[_fat_santa]

I have what I call the "10 second rule". The rule is that an experienced programmer (ie. someone who has written the type of code your codebase is written in, whether Python, JS, etc) should be able to look at a code snippet, any code snippet in your code, and figure out what it does in about 10 seconds. There are obviously exceptions to this where complexity can't be avoided but overall I found the tradeoff is worth it especially on a team of multiple devs.

I currently work for a client that has a very very large react native app that is pretty hard to wrap your head around. I can't tell you how many millions of dollars they have wasted in dev hours because it takes a dev way to long to even figure out what the code is doing before they can start making changes.

[duderific]

I always try to imagine that I'm coding for other people rather than coding for myself. This helps me to remember to make the code as easy to understand as possible.

[JKCalhoun]

Mine is the "10th grade rule".

A 10th grader should be able to understand it.

[Timon3]

I like your "10 second rule"! I have a slightly modified version, the "look, a fly" rule. If I can lose focus for a bit and return to the function without being confused, it's probably good!