Comment by edw519

Most code sucks because we have the fluency equivalent of 3 year olds trying to write a novel.

Let's get a little more specific...

Most code sucks because the programmer:

  - didn't name his variables what the really were
  - didn't understand variable state
  - didn't understand variable scope
  - didn't understand the basic concepts of iteration
  - didn't understand any of the algorithms he needed
  - wrote the same lines of code multiple times
  - didn't know enough about the language to find a better construct
  - didn't understand concurrency
  - didn't understand fundamental data base concepts
  - refused to follow well worn standards
  - didn't have any well worn standards to follow
  - built code on top of hopelessly designed data structures
  - didn't understand deeply enough what was going on under the hood
  - built to requirements that changed too dramatically to recover from
  - didn't even consider the concerns of the "next" programmer

But most of all:

  - was just good enough to get "something" (no matter how bad) deployed on time