I agree that there's an enormous difference between the size and simplicity of some peoples code - partly this is due to skill, practise and ability.

 Sometimes it's background too.

 I started programming in BASIC around 15 years ago on a ZX Spectrum, from this I moved on to Z80 machine code, then onto x86 machine code.

 For a very long time I was the producer of prematurely optimized code regardless of the implementation language. There would be little tiny loops of functionality optimized for speed, or size, scattered throught the code - things would be unrolled for performance, and generally everything was a pain to modify.

 Then after reading 'Code Complete', and a few other related books, I achieved some enlightenment. Since then I've been mostly restrained; only optimizing the code which measurably needs it.

 When I get bored I'll write a version of life in 80 bytes of x86 assembly; that usually works it out of my system, failing that I'll decompile a random binary, and play around with it's internals..

 Optimization for me is a very introverted activity which is immensley attractive. At times it's enjoyable, at times it's painful, but I nearly always learn something new, and I usually enjoy the experience.

 For the average programmer optimization doesn't have a place in 99% of the code they'll write. (This is both a good thing, and a bad thing).

 Laziness, Hubris, and Simplicity are indeed the way to code. Optimize only when you need to, and only then after thinking of algorithmic changes.