[araes]

I won't argue the less vs more, that's an age old debate. However, this part:

"Explicitly writing out the intention of a piece of code in plain English often makes the concept much clearer in my brain"

I think is critical for me. I actually write code by first doing a pseudo-code pass of comments, where I just write the flow of what I think the code should be doing. Then go back and fill in the actual functionality behind the comments. Naturally, its not always perfect on the first pass, but you just mod the comment thought process to update your approach, and then refill the functionality. As a programmer, you can then skim down through sections just checking what its "supposed" to do, whether you're a newbie diving in, or the original writer who's just needing a refresh.