taste is relevant to clarity
Big balls of mud
If you are writing code that may still be in use a year later, balance the convenience factor against the difficulties you will inevitably suffer later.
Large scale software development is unfortunately statistical.
"Political problems cannot be solved"
The way you handle a political problem is to find the technical problem at its root and solve that instead. Then, the political problem will evaporate.
Stroustrup, “The C Family of Languages: Interview with Dennis Ritchie, Bjarne Stroustrup, and James Gosling,” Java Report, 5(7), July 2000.