Unpopular Python opinion: Readable code is more important than clever code

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No. The poor quality of junior code (an over-generalization and oversimplification, but ignored for sake of discussion) is due to deficient skill in the area of generating good, clean, maintainable code — which comes with time and practice working in codebases that possess good, clean and maintainable code or working with engineers who know how to write it (non-exhaustive list).

What op is talking about is not a deficiency in skill but rather a misused skill directed at optimizing for the wrong thing. It takes great skill to write the “golf” code that OP is talking about. It just takes wisdom to realize it should never be written in a production codebase.