I have shamelessly repackaged this from the brilliant work of Tim Peters, a long-time software developer who originally wrote this piece under the title, “The Zen of Python.” For Peters, this is a set of core principles to guide the way in which he writes computer code using the Python programming language. Please visit the Python.org site to see the principles in their original context. For me, these principles are equally great for writing policy.
The Zen of Python
Beautiful is better than ugly.
Explicit is better than implicit.
Simple is better than complex.
Complex is better than complicated.
Flat is better than nested.
Sparse is better than dense.
Readability counts.
Special cases aren’t special enough to break the rules.
Although practicality beats purity.
Errors should never pass silently.
Unless explicitly silenced.
In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
There should be one– and preferably only one –obvious way to do it.
Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you’re Dutch.
Now is better than never.
Although never is often better than right now.
If the implementation is hard to explain, it’s a bad idea.
If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
Parameter 