Here is the starting point for my little tangent today: http://media.rubyonrails.org/presentations/programminghappiness.pdf

The line “optimize for happiness” particularly struck me. A more thorough description of the concept can be found here: http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch10_Optimize_for_Happiness.php

I have a little different slant on it, but the idea of writing code in a way that it is optimized structurally, syntactically, or otherwise rather than simply for performance seems very appealing.

Of course, my favorite segment from the Getting Real book is this one: http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch04_Make_Opinionated_Software.php

The first three paragraphs are great. The rest a bit so-so, and the last paragraph I could live without, but the first three paragraphs make up for it.