And l3s and l8s write code that needs l7s to maintain.
I love this so much. This may be one of my favourite comments ever.
Can I ask if this has a source? From a particular company? Meme? Quote? Paraphrased from something?
I know some versions of it, like Feynman saying that if he can't explain it to a freshman, he doesn't understand it.
Likewise, if you write code that only you and someone smarter than you can understand, you don't understand it.
That does bring a risk though. If you write simple code (e.g. in Go) that does what it does without any trickery, a more inexperienced job interviewer may look at it and scoff because you're OBVIOUSLY not a very good developer if you stick to simple code.
But that's a good litmus test, if they're like that, run away. They don't write code to solve a problem, they write code to flex and impress themselves, or to provide them with job security, or CV boosts.
L7’s should write code that only needs L4’s to maintain.