Trivia rarely affect efficiency. Are all the machinations worth it, when their primary effect is to make the code less readable?
Trying to outsmart a compiler defeats much of the purpose of using one.
Mechanical rules are never a substitute for clarity of thought.
The most effective debugging tool is still careful thought, coupled with judiciously placed print statements.
If you're as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it?
Do what you think is interesting, do something that you think is fun and worthwhile, because otherwise you won't do it well anyway.