Software engineers hate code
Software engineers hate code
This is the best-kept secret of the software engineering profession: engineers hate code. Especially code written by other people. It's why they love working on greenfield projects so much. No code, no maintenance, no headaches! Ever wondered why microservices took off in teams of all sizes? A micr...
![[HN] Software Engineers Hate Code](https://radiation.party/pictrs/image/74c649bf-8bdd-46e9-8275-2f9b79dd8012.jpeg?format=webp&thumbnail=196)
I really like debugging and unravelling old fucked up overcomplicated codebases. I feel like it's one of the most long term keeps-on-improving-over-decades skills in programming alongside architecture
I've grown to love code even more later in life, even other people's code.
You know what I hate?
Coding ceremonies (formerly known as "meetings") that produce poorly defined/badly written acceptance criteria for code.
One of my problems is that I've gotten so practiced at reading code that my standards for "this is readable, it doesn't need much commenting" are much lower than those of the other developers I work with. I've had to recalibrate from "Will I be able to understand this six months from now?" to "Will I need to explain this in the review?"
I feel like if someone is going to blog about my life, I should at least get some credit!
Yeah I gotta report this post for targeted abuse :(
If the code is written well, it can save a bunch of time and provide a great forum for learning new techniques. Otherwise, if it's written poorly yes I hate it. Like others have state here the title is an over generalization.
Senior engineers have learned through hard-won experience that writing code is the ultimate diminishing return.
I feel seen. That entire section is absolute gold.
Great post! We solve far too many problems (many of them are very much in the nice-to-have category) with our systems at my work, the systems get huge and difficult to change or maintain. I'm on a constant campaign to stop people building things we don't need, I'm definitely filling my senior role lol.
Oh man, I hate code reviews with the strength of a thousand suns. In the enterprise world, there are so many constraints and conventions that reading other people code is even more boring than it should be. It's even worse when you LGTM it and your colleagues "accuse" you of not having read it with attention because "I can't believe you don't have any comment on my code".
Well, if you don't even have any comments at all, neither good nor bad, then "LGTM" doesn't ever really translate to "I have read all your code and it's wonderfule/okay enough to pass"...
To me, having worked as a developer for some years now, it means "don't got no time to look into your codes, so here's a stamp of approval to send you along your way, knowing too well that you expected me to look into your code but I didn't"
My point being, if you want to say you read all the code and it's fine, maybe refrain from using "LGTM", which is the universal sign of malicious compliance/not caring.