Readability. 

It’s not something you think about often. It’s the sort of thing you notice when it’s either entirely missing or perfect. Michael Muse – an appropriate name I must say – inspired me to write this brief dissertation on the value of aesthetics in code writing. 

Code, as they say, is for humans. It is the medium by which the organic interacts with the electronic and so is often subject to severe interface losses. Time spent puzzling over poorly written or commented code is an eon to the computer that could be running something elegant. There is a craft to beautiful code, it leads the eye and the mind to understand the puzzle being solved. 

In contrast, code that is messy is like a labyrinth. A fitting metaphor when one considers the minotaur of time constraints bearing down on your every twist and turn through the maze of logic, control, scopes, disencapsulation, disinheritance, object disoriented programming, and other beasts that roam these halls.