- Get burned by it before so that you know it's a bad thing. Attempting to debug something from long ago that written cleverly is great fun. I think you have that covered.
- Comment your code, explain what you're doing before each section of code.
- If you find yourself struggling to explain it, or feel the need to insert a diagram, then what you've just done is too clever and could probably be done more cleanly.
Clever solutions to problems can be fantastic, until you have to debug or expand them. Sometimes it's the only solution. If you can accurately describe just what the hell it does, and how it does it, clever solutions can be acceptable.
I usually use commenting to describe what I'm doing with a section of code. If it seems in the least confusing, I also describe how I'm doing it. Ideally, the code should be straight forward and self explanatory. But if I struggle to explain how I did what I just did, then it's a clear sign that I need to step back and try again.