> Until you tell me that you're testing to see if an object reference count is zero, decrementing it if not, and raising an error if so.
But that won't tell me why your code is doing what it's doing
> Good comments are tedious work and seem pointless at the time,
Good comments should make you think about your code, not be some pain point you are compelled to endure.
If you think it's tedious and pointless, there is a good chance the reader (quite possibly yourself not to far in the future) will consider the comment tedious and pointless as well.
> But that won't tell me why your code is doing what it's doing
Indeed, that's what the rest of the comment is for.
> Good comments should make you think about your code, not be some pain point you are compelled to endure.
Fair point. Yet the fact is that many people enjoy neither commenting nor thinking about their own code, and that's not going to change. The question is how to convince people to write good documentation in the face of intrinsic motivations not to do so, and I think the best persuasion is a reminder of how they will use that documentation later.
But that won't tell me why your code is doing what it's doing
> Good comments are tedious work and seem pointless at the time,
Good comments should make you think about your code, not be some pain point you are compelled to endure.
If you think it's tedious and pointless, there is a good chance the reader (quite possibly yourself not to far in the future) will consider the comment tedious and pointless as well.