[georgieporgie]

To me, what I find jarring is how common bad code is and how incredibly rare well-designed systems and good code are

I've mentioned before my rule of three. That is, my code will pretty much suck until about the third time that I've solved (or refactored) a problem.

If I ever come across code that I think is particularly nice, it's quite likely that the developer either reworked said code or has solved a very similar problem multiple times. If, on the other hand, I come across bad code, I generally assume the developer was simply pressed for time and created as much value as possible under the constraints.