Comment by ozozozd
15 days ago
I can relate coz once upon a time I enjoyed reading poetic code - which I later found to be impossible to modify or extend.
> Eventually your boss will start asking why you’re getting paid twice your zoomer colleagues’ salary to produce a tenth of the code.
And then I couldn’t relate because no one ever paid me for lines of code. And the hardest programming I ever did was when it took me 2 days to write 2 lines of C code, which did solve a big problem.
I abhorred the LOC success metric because we had to clean up after those who dumped their code diarrhea to fool those who thought every line of code is added value. Not to mention valuing LOC strictly makes you a junior programmer.
E.g. you have to know more to do the following in 2 lines (yes, you can):
‘’’ t = a; a = b; b = a; ‘’’
According to LOC missionaries these 3 lines are more expensive to write and shows that you’re a better programmer than the XOR swap. But it’s actually more expensive to run it than the XOR swap, and it’s more expensive to hire the person who can write the XOR swap. (Not endorsing clever/cryptic code, just making a point about LOC)
So, if the LOC missionaries are out of a job because of LLMs, I will probably celebrate.
It's the end goal that matters in this context.
Boss that counts LOC will be fired or will bankrupt the company/team.
One of my friend who never lost a touch with coding in hist 30+ years career recently left FAANG and told me it's the best time to realize his dream of building a start up. And it's not because AI can write code for him - it would take him about 12 month to build the system from the ground up manually, but it's the best time because nobody can replicate what he's doing by using AI only. His analogy was "it's like everyone is becoming really good cyclist with electric bikes, even enthusiast cyclists, but you secretly train for Tour de France".