When you compile your program, the actual statements get converted to some sort of binary code that can be executed to do something. That something is indisputably what the program does. There is no confusion. There is no doubt. After all, although you can measure again, once you cut there is rarely any way to go back and start over with the same piece of material.
Programming is the same way.
You can't get to simple and elegant by hacking away. Instead, you have to think long and hard before you try and code the solution. I can't tell you how many times I spent several hours figuring out some complex problem so that I could write 30 clear lines of code that worked the first time I tested. I also cannot tell you how many times I rushed into coding what looked like a simple problem only to end up with a couple of hundred lines of spaghetti that I never want to look at again. If you want to write quality code, you should practice the carpenter's philosophy.