Status in the programmer’s primate pecking order is often earned through ritual displays of cleverness, rather than through workman-like displays of simplicity and clarity. That which a culture glorifies will flourish.

Status in the programmer’s primate pecking order is often earned through ritual displays of cleverness, rather than through workman-like displays of simplicity and clarity. That which a culture glorifies will flourish.

—Brian Foote and Joseph Yoder in a 1999 paper, ‘Big Ball of Mud’