A lot of folks still try to write "clever" code, "terse" code, as though compilers had made no progress at all in the last forty years. Maybe it used to be the case that the compiler's output would closely resemble the source input, such that if you wrote the code differently you'd get a different (better) output, but those days are long gone... and good riddance to them.
... and "at 1 gigaHertz, nobody can hear you scream."
Nowadays, what you want to be sure of is, that your code is
absolutely clear. It should be clear to the compiler but most of all it should be clear to
you and your co-workers. It should be easy to maintain and well-documented. And that, basically, means "no 'clever' code."
If you can find Kernighan* & Plauger's
The Elements of Programming Style, even the original edition written for FORTRAN, buy it and read it many times. Great things come in thin books. They say everything that
Code Complete does, in a fifth the number of pages.
{* yes,
that Kernighan ...)