No, he means the lower bound.

A function should be as short as it can be, and no shorter. 'As it can be' is the lower bound, and he's striving to meet that.

He's not trying to give the best estimate possible. He's trying to achieve the best possible.

* Actually, a function should be as short as it can be while doing its job and being maintainable. But that's really long and didn't flow.

I agree. I have a feeling PG was implying something more along the lines of the Einstein quote, "Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler."

Haha, yes, that's the quote I was thinking of when I said that. I couldn't remember it exactly, or who said it. Thank you.