Exactly this, with the addition that there are actually three things I want to see when reading code, only one of which can often be elegantly expressed without comments.
I usually want to see (1) what the code does (2) what the code is intended to do and (3) why the code is intended to work that way. Usually only the first can elegantly and most easily be expressed in code.
For instance, I read a performance-critical function that would stop processing data and return early in an obscure corner case, but performed better than the best way I could think of to handle the obscure corner case. There were at least 3 possibilities: (1) the author made a mistake (2) for reasons I couldn't see, the corner case was impossible or (3) for reasons I couldn't see, the consequences of mishandling the corner case were never as bad as I thought they could be and the performance gain was worth it. I had to look up the revision history, call up the author and ask him which it was. It turns out the author had missed the corner case, but I try to as rarely as possible assume I'm smarter/more insightful than the original author.
I usually want to see (1) what the code does (2) what the code is intended to do and (3) why the code is intended to work that way. Usually only the first can elegantly and most easily be expressed in code.
For instance, I read a performance-critical function that would stop processing data and return early in an obscure corner case, but performed better than the best way I could think of to handle the obscure corner case. There were at least 3 possibilities: (1) the author made a mistake (2) for reasons I couldn't see, the corner case was impossible or (3) for reasons I couldn't see, the consequences of mishandling the corner case were never as bad as I thought they could be and the performance gain was worth it. I had to look up the revision history, call up the author and ask him which it was. It turns out the author had missed the corner case, but I try to as rarely as possible assume I'm smarter/more insightful than the original author.