Clean Code

Biological Parallel

Metabolic efficiency determines organism survival—ATP synthesis through oxidative phosphorylation yields 30 ATP molecules per glucose versus glycolysis's 2 ATP, a 15x efficiency advantage. Clean code optimizes for cognitive efficiency: code that communicates intent clearly reduces comprehension costs exactly as efficient metabolic pathways reduce energy waste. Organisms running inefficient metabolism burn through resources faster and lose to competitors. Codebases with poor readability burn cognitive resources and lose velocity to technical debt accumulation.