[datsci_est_2015]

Also developer UX, common antipatterns, etc

This “the only thing that matters about code is whether it meets requirements” is such a tired take and I can’t imagine anyone seriously spouting it has has had to maintain real software.

[vova_hn2]

I personally haven't made my my mind either way yet, but I imagine that a vibecoding advocate could say to you that maintaining code makes sense only when the code is expensive to produce.

If the code is cheap to produce, you don't maintain it, you just throw it away and regenerate.

[sarchertech]

If you have users, this only works if you have managed to encode nearly every user observable behavior into your test suite.

I’ve never seen this done even with LLMs. Not even close. And even if you did it, the test suite is almost definitely more complex than the code and will suffer from all the same maintainability problems.

[raw_anon_1111]

The developer UX are the markdown files if no developer ever looks at the code.

Whether you are tired of it or not, absolutely no one in your value you chain - your customers who give your company money or your management chain cares about your code beyond does it meet the functional and non functional requirements - they never did.

And of course whether it was done on time and on budget

[datsci_est_2015]

As a consumer of goods, I care quite a bit about many of the “hows” of those goods just as much as the “whats”.

My home, which I own, for example, is very much a “what” that keeps me warm and dry. But the “how” of it was constructed is the difference between (1) me cursing the amateur and careless decision making of builders and (2) quietly sipping a cocktail on the beach, free of a care in the world.

“How” doesn’t matter until it matters, like when you put too much weight onto that piece of particle board IKEA furniture.

[raw_anon_1111]

Do you know how every nail was put into your house? Does the general contractor?

[datsci_est_2015]

I know where they fucked up and cost me thousands of dollars due to cutting corners during build-out and poor architectural decisions during planning. These kinds of things become very obvious during destructive inspection, which is probably why there are so many limitations on warranties; I digress.

He’s mildly controversial, but watch some @cyfyhomeinspections on YouTube to get a good idea of what you can infer of the “how” of building homes and how it affects homeowners. Especially relevant here because he seems to specialize in inspecting homes that are part of large developments where a single company builds out many homes very quickly and cuts tons of corners and makes the same mistakes repeatedly, kind of like LLM-generated code.

[raw_anon_1111]

So you’re saying that whether it’s humans or AI - when you delegate something to others you have no idea whether it’s producing quality without you checking yourself…

[datsci_est_2015]

> you have no idea whether it’s producing quality without you checking yourself

No, I can have some idea. For example, “brand perception”, which can be negatively impacted pretty heavily if things go south too often. See: GitHub, most recently.

I mean, there are already companies that have a negative reputation regarding software quality due to significant outsourcing (consultancies), or bloated management (IBM), or whatever tf Oracle does. We don’t have to pretend there’s a universe where software quality matters, we already live in one. AI will just be one more way to tank your company’s reputation with regards to quality, even if you can maintain profitability otherwise through business development schemes.