Comment on Monday SOTD Thread, December 1st, 2025 (#902)
gcgallant@sub.wetshaving.social 2 days agoAoC is something that I like the idea of, especially to see other people’s solutions. I’m always impressed at how clever people can be. Especially with coding. I entered the IOCCC in the 80’s. It was fun to participate but more fun to see other people’s creations.
djundjila@sub.wetshaving.social 1 day ago
I have a love/hate relationship with clever code. It’s fun in contests and quizzes, but in production, it’s maintenance poison. Dumb is boring, boring is good.
gcgallant@sub.wetshaving.social 1 day ago
Yes, I understand completely. For me, having responsibility for a large body of embedded systems software and computer electronics on a spacecraft, “clever” meant finding simple, elegant, easily understood, solutions to complex problems. The value of this is realized when an anomaly that results from an “unknown unknown” must be quickly understood and resolved. I also love the hackery involved with something like IOCCC, but that’s more of a game than anything else.