It is a common misconception among junior developers that the primary goal of code is to work for the computer. While correctness is non-negotiable, the true audience of your code is not the compiler, but the next human who has to read it—which is often your future self.
Clean code is about intent. Variables should be named after what they store, not their type. Functions should do one thing and do it well. Complexity should be managed through abstraction, not clever one-liners that obscure logic. As Martin Fowler famously said, "Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand."
Investing time in writing clean, self-documenting code pays dividends in the long run. It reduces technical debt, makes onboarding new team members easier, and significantly lowers the chance of introducing bugs during refactoring. In the world of software engineering, clarity is king.