Don't look to Minecraft for an example of well written code, there are open source alternatives (Minetest in C++ springs to mind) that run rings around it. And

Don't look to Minecraft for an example of well written code, there are open source alternatives (Minetest in C++ springs to mind) that run rings around it. And Notch himself is well known for his inefficient magic-number and circular-reference ridden Java code. Although I can't attest to Jeb (who is now the lead dev)'s coding skill.