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(Step 1.5 should probably be "Don't call your variables 'a' and 'b' ")

Ah, but there is, or was, a time when it was worthwhile to do so.

Many years ago I wrote code onto Hollorith Cards and if you recall these then there's basically one line of code per punched card. Sometimes the ladies in the card punch room would fail to read my handwriting on the coding form and type something slightly different.

And if this was the case then one had to find the card and replace it with one of one's own. Now there was a number of options available. The first was to go and put through the single card required through the system which could take a day or so (and the single card may get lost between the punch card room and oneself).

The second option was to go into an auxiliary room with a crufty old machine that one could stamp out the card for oneself. This option meant moving off one's arse and to use a machine which was, effectively, running off three phase mains with cloth covered mains cable and the machine, because the girls wouldn't touch it, would be a heath hazard. And in the 70s a Health Hazard was really a Health Hazard.

The third option was Cut And Paste. Seventies style.

If one purposely didn't use descriptive variables and just stuck to the likes of x and y then it would be simple enough to find a card from another application, borrow that and shove it into one's card stack in the right place.

Which really had a number of side effects. First this didn't lend itself to good naming conventions (which didn't exist in those days anyway) and, secondly, if one forgot or didn't even know that your code was tampered with then the debugging became a real nightmare.

Hollorith cards. That was real programming. Especially if carrying the deck of cards to the machine room and they fell out of their elastic band and spilled all over the floor requiring a massive sort run manually...