I don't want to burst your bubble, but there are bosses out there who a) will read and criticize your diffs and commit comments, and b) will not be anywhere near as capable as you. These circumstances combine to produce a situation where it is entirely possible to be "too clever", which elicits a polite chewing-out and an assignment to go back and replace elegant code with code that any idiot can maintain.
If you know a trick for maintaining a sense of satori in such conditions, you would oblige me enormously by describing it.
(I'm replying late to this so you may never read it.)
I don't think I'm that great of a programmer. I'm self taught and I have a lot of insecurities about my abilities. Even though I get paid to program. Even though I pickup new languages, on my own, and write working software with them.
So when I write code I write it as simple and direct as possible. I stay away from clever and I stay away from cute or smart. Because I know that the idiot that will be maintaining the code and need to understand that code will be me.
I've been able to build trust with stakeholders, and that lets me be 'too clever.' The problem is when they lose that trust, because of a situation they are going through. Being clever is a risk in many situations.
If you know a trick for maintaining a sense of satori in such conditions, you would oblige me enormously by describing it.