Code is read more than it's written

A lot of code is written once by one person and not changed again.

But it's read by multiple people at multiple times.

If the code is read more than it's written, we should be optimising it for readability so it's easier for people to understand.

The application doesn't care whether you wrote the code the "clever" way or the "boring" way, but people will appreciate the more readable version.

If I need to review or work on the code in the future, I want to read and understand it easily.