Do not make code COMPLEX!!

I have been working in maintaining legacy code since I started my career. From my experience don't even try to show your briliance in making the code unnecessarily short. It may not worth doing. If you ever encounter a complex piece of code in a production line, do not hesitate to abolish it and write it bottom-up. Trust me that project lasts long. Let the compiler optimiser do the optimisation and write maintainable code. I personally never resort to tricks or gimmicks in the code. Declare the variable when necessary even though your compiler can do the casting. 

Ultimately simplicity wins. Brings money.

"Premature optimization is the root of all evil "-- Donald Knuth