Comment by cogman10
5 days ago
A problem I'm seeing more and more in my code reviews is velocity being favored over correctness.
I recently had a team member submit code done primarily by an LLM that was clearly wrong. Rather than verifying that the change was correct, they rapid fired a cr and left it up to the team to spot problems.
They've since pushed multiple changes to fix the initial garbage of the LLM because they've adopted "move fast and break things". The appearance of progress without the substance.
> The appearance of progress without the substance.
This is highly rewarded in many (most?) corporate environments, so that’s not surprising.
When’s the last time you heard “when will it be done?”
When’s the last time you heard “can you demonstrate that it’s right|robust|reliable|fast enough|etc?”
I think the latter question is implied. Because if you don’t care if it’s right then the answer is always “it’s done now”.
Maybe it is implied but many places i have worked there were engineers with high velocity who made a mess for everyone else, and they were usually rewarded because people only saw the fast output and the bugs were dispersed amongst the masses
I am very lucky to work somewhere where they at least ask both questions!
How did the garbage code make it in? Are there no code reviews in your process? (Serious question, not trying to be snarky.)
It's a large enough team and there are members that rubber stamp everything.
Takes just a lunch break for the review to go up and get approved by someone that just made sure there's code there. (Who is also primarily using LLMs without verifying)
When you're not rubber stamping things, you will get called out on reducing velocity or perfectionism..
Plus the time you're reviewing is the time you're not coding, so of course you get dinged on your own velocity further.
Ultimately proper review is a career limiting move. Unless you're a pro auditor.
Likely driven by management who count number of PRs per quarter and number of lines changed and consider him a 10x engineer (soon to be promoted).
Move fast and fire them?
Even better: Fire yourself.
Yes that is how the code base turns to poop and the good people leave.