Sometimes I don't know how to solve my problems with tiny amounts of code. It often takes skill and effort to come up with an elegant solution. But I agree it is something we should try to do when we can.
Friendly amendment: This has been attributed as being originally from Blaise Pascal in 1656 [0]
* I get better at writing code. * Better understanding of the problem, the feedback from the first iteration usually tells me what the code actually had to do, not what my boss thought it needed to do. * A working but messy and bloated first iteration shows me that I can solve the problem at all, the rewrite let's me do it with some grace.
The hard part is minimizing the time spent on the first messy implementation so more work can go into the good final iteration.