I don't agree with that statement. Standards are there to make development easier via an agreed upon "standard" way of doing things. Code rot has nothing to do with that. Things change all the time. No amount of standards stops change. Your code is rotting the second you're "done" with it, simply because everything else around it is still moving. Just accept that and learn to write code that is easily testable so that you can make your changes as necessary and have some confidence that you haven't broken anything in the process. Trying to write rot-free code is pointless. Trying to write code that is easy to update and repair is a worthwhile goal.