[taeric]

It really is a great way to introduce a narrative into the code. Too much of reading programs feels like taking a look at either just a plain convoluted mess, or an index that someone put together for another larger work. (This is especially true for pieces where someone makes a lot of single use functions. Sure, the pieces may be "self documenting," but it is almost akin to just seeing a bag of screws. You know what they do individually, but you don't know why they are there.)

If you have the time, take a look at any of Knuth's programs[1]. Obviously, they are not all immediately approachable, but render them to pdf and give them a try. You'll hopefully be surprised just how much you do pick up.

The only downside, to me, is that I become less concerned with modern trends of long variable names and abstractions that "self document." These are still great, of course, but they don't go nearly as far as knowing the narrative of why a piece of code was written.

[1] http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/programs.html