On the point of it being "retarded" there's some merit to that in that it's written in point-free (or as some joking call it, pointless) style. The idea is to remove the explicit variables and so the functions are re-arranged and composed such that all the variables come at the end of the statement and you're left with nothing but a chain of functions at the start (which can sometimes be easier to understand since it's just function composition). The downside, as you've seen is that it often hurts readability and so there are some that are strongly opposed to point-free style. If used carefully, and things are broken into smaller easier to understand chunks (via for instance let or where clauses) it can still be readable even using point-free style, but it's really dependent on both the skill of the person writing the statement, and the familiarity and skill of the person reading the statement. When in doubt about legibility it's better to avoid point-free style, in particular if you start having to do strange things like apply the (.) operator to itself (E.G. "(f .) . g" or similar) you're probably being to clever for your own good. I wouldn't go so far as to say you should *never* use point-free style, but you should seriously consider if you're trying to just be clever and show off, or if it really is making the statement simpler to understand via more clearly showing how the functions are composed.