What we're really talking about here is 'wisdom' -- an attribute that is entirely different than 'intelligence'.

I admire routines (by others, and by myself) that are elegant taken as a whole. Many comments on this particular thread seem to be about the micro-logic of combining one or more statements into an impressive one-stroker.

I suggest that the real wisdom, the real 'efficiency of code' comes from a macro level. Looking at a routine and realizing that we don't need to re-write sort again, that we don't need to re-write another find, etc.

Great thoughts to be ponder, thanks.