There’s a breed of developer who won’t ship a feature until every private method has a single responsibility, every dependency is inverted, and every variable name reads like a Hemingway sentence.
They believe in Clean Code — capital C, capital C — and they quote Uncle Bob like scripture. To them, clarity equals elegance, and elegance equals correctness.
Here’s the problem: They’re not writing software. They’re performing.
The Cult of Clean
Let’s be clear: readable, maintainable code matters.
But somewhere along the way, Clean Code™ stopped being a philosophy and became a brand — a badge of moral superiority worn by developers more concerned with appearances than outcomes.
They’ll refactor a working function into five abstracted layers, each doing “just one thing” — none of which you can follow without fifteen minutes of spelunking through files.
All in the name of “clarity.”
It’s not clarity. It’s obfuscation with good intentions.
Real Clarity Comes With Context
You know what’s actually readable? A concise, expressive function that gets the job done in a domain-specific way — even if it bends a couple “rules.”
You know what’s not? An architecture diagram disguised as a class hierarchy.
// Before: Clean Code zealot version
export class TaskRepository {
constructor(private db: DbClient) {}
async getActiveTasks(userId: string): Promise<Task[]> {
return this.db.query(buildGetActiveTasksQuery(userId));
}
}
// After: Functional, fast, readable
export async function getActiveTasks(db, userId) {
return db.query(`SELECT * FROM tasks WHERE user_id = ? AND is_done = 0`, [
userId,
]);
}The second one? It’s shorter. Easier to follow. Faster to maintain. And unless you’re building an enterprise SDK, it’s just better.
Where Did This Come From?
Clean Code took off because it feels safe. It offers structure in a world where everything — stacks, tools, teams — changes weekly.
But safe doesn’t mean smart. Following best practices blindly is still following. And in this industry, if you’re not thinking independently, you’re just cargo culting.
What Clean Code Gets Right — and Wrong
| Principle | When It Helps | When It Hurts |
|---|---|---|
| Single Responsibility | Isolating logic in complex systems | Micro-method hell in simple CRUD apps |
| Meaningful Names | Improves intent clarity | When names become self-narrating novels |
| Avoiding Duplication | In critical logic or complex rules | When deduping makes everything harder to trace |
| Small Functions | In pure utilities | When every 3-liner has its own file |
Clean Code isn’t bad. It’s just not a universal truth. It’s a contextual tool — and like any tool, it’s a liability when used dogmatically.
Stop Optimizing for Code Review Applause
Code is a means to an end, not an aesthetic.
You’re not here to impress other developers with your composition skills. You’re here to solve real problems with the least friction possible.
Favor usefulness over purity. Favor clarity over cleverness. Favor progress over performance.
And if someone tells you your perfectly functional logic isn’t “clean” enough? Ask them to define clean. Then ask how their definition makes anything better.
TL;DR
- Clean Code is a guideline, not a goal.
- Over-abstracting simple things is worse than writing something a little “messy” that works and is clear.
- The best code is the one your team can change tomorrow without anxiety.
- Stop writing for future readers. Start writing for today’s builders.
Clean Code isn’t dead. But maybe we should kill the cult around it.