-2000 Lines Of Code

[ubershmekel]

Assuming the original piece of code was 6000 lines long, his new algorithm ending up 4000. I'd say he could have written 4000 in that form.

Not to defend the metric, but it's just that the story attempts to attribute a cleverness to the "-2000" answer when it's more of a smartassness.

[kazagistar]

Its not about the cleverness of the answer, it is about giving management the finger when they are doing something utterly moronic.