this kind of thing is good to write a blog post on, but when else is it useful? I think it is irresponsible to choose "_awesomer_" over "scalable, readable, fully tested" for anything that is supposed to be production quality (don't know the status of the particular project in question).

You may end up with non-scalable, unreadable, and/or untested code in a production system for a number of reasons. Some I can think of off the top of my head include performance and schedule pressure. Introducing it for fun sounds like bad news bears to me.

Most of the time you get non-scalable, unreadable, and/or untested code in a production system because you're not very good and you don't step back and look at interesting/different ways to do things. "Awesomer" isn't a good reason to do things, but it's probably the original source of some of the things we like about Python and Ruby and Lua and IO and Potion . . .

In our daily lives, we strive for quality in what we do. We cook aiming to make delicious food; we build to produce something durable and attractive. When I program, I aim to produce something of high quality: Performant, readable, simple, and reliable.

We also get drunk and do stupid things. Some of us also enjoys reading obscure poetry. Or listen to brain dead No Wave-music or spends two hours listening to this new awesome Japanese records played on two spoons. That's not 'attractive' or 'simple' or anything else that would fit into your hipster life in that black/white attic of yours, listening to 'hip' music and drinking that fabulous red wine (which probably sucks) and enjoying the shit out of your Good Life (tm)

The same applies for code.

Wow, let's hear it for being judgmental!