> Which is to say that the pleasure I get from programming is mostly about learning the underlying truths about computation and applying what I’ve learned. Always improving the craft. This, to me, is the practice of programming
My very hot take is that I do more of this now that I have access to Claude code than I did before. The above is the fun part of programming. You know how they say wood working is 90% sanding? Well Claude automates the sanding. You could use it to automate the fun parts too, but you probably shouldn't, for 2 reasons: Claude knows sanding, he's great at sanding. Other stuff? Not so much! He's happy to try, but he's just not great at it!
And secondly, while you could have Claude do the fun parts, where's the fun in that?
Not if he listens to the advise his senior engineers give him. Like I said, Claude really isn't very good at the fun parts, there are reasons for your boss to not automate that stuff. Plus it's very little gain. By automating the sanding which is 90%, you already have a 10x gain in productivity, with no loss in quality. Automate the fun parts too, your quality will go to shit, and you'll operate at 11x base speed, rather than 10x. The difference just isn't big enough.
And that 11x will turn to 0.5x once the code is fit for serving in an Italian restaurant. Which at 11x speed will be like the second week or something.
10x speed is sustainable. I think. If not, then 9x speed probably is. Or 8x. The trick is finding the highest sustainable speed multiplier, and it's not entirely obvious to be yet what it is, but it's in that ballpark somewhere, I'm pretty sure.
And if your boss does not listen to the advise of the senior engineers? That's a bad boss, We've had those since forever. The way to deal with those is typically to find a new one.
My very hot take is that I do more of this now that I have access to Claude code than I did before. The above is the fun part of programming. You know how they say wood working is 90% sanding? Well Claude automates the sanding. You could use it to automate the fun parts too, but you probably shouldn't, for 2 reasons: Claude knows sanding, he's great at sanding. Other stuff? Not so much! He's happy to try, but he's just not great at it!
And secondly, while you could have Claude do the fun parts, where's the fun in that?