Coding is when we're least productive • Hacker News Board

Re: Coding is when we're least productive

#41

Post by none2585 » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 2:30 PM UTC

sublinear wrote: post #33

softwaredoug wrote: post #31

One way hand coding is productive is it gives you detailed intimate knowledge of the code. We’ve all seen someone that really knows a system hear about a bug and say “Aha!” and take 5 minutes to pump out a fix. A well setup Claude Code, with good guardrails and feedback, could possibly do this (we’ve seen examples of it for sure). But it also might loop idiotically not finding the issue.

Can you link to any examples of Claude quickly debugging a codebase it didn't write using a nontechnical description of a bug from a real user?

I closed six bugs last week doing precisely this. They were minor issues but impressive nonetheless.

Re: Coding is when we're least productive

#42

Post by none2585 » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 2:32 PM UTC

vjvjvjvjghv wrote: post #18

gethly wrote: post #3

Coding is the 5 minute result for an hour of thinking.

How do you define “coding”? In my mind the thinking is part of coding.

I like to say "coding is just typing"

Re: Coding is when we're least productive

#43

Post by hnthrow0287345 » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 2:38 PM UTC

>I’ve seen so many times how 10 lines of code can end up being worth £millions, and 10,000 ends up being worthless.

I don't care how easy it is, I'm not fixing something worth millions when I won't see a penny of that. It's on the business to double check their shit.

Re: Coding is when we're least productive

#44

Post by bot403 » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 2:51 PM UTC

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #20

sedatk wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s Bill Gates’, not Dijkstra’s.

measuring aphorism worth by attribution is like architecture about drowning.

To be fair there was no value judgement there, just a correction in attribution.

Re: Coding is when we're least productive

#45

Post by assaddayinh » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 3:25 PM UTC

The problem is not with code, its with management having no real perception of the problemspace they inhabitate and how they damage and polute said space.

The myriad of "nocode" aka i dont want to deal with the whole complexity solutions tells you what its really all about.

How do you get a caste todo its job when all they do is refuse the call to adventure, smear responsibility over hierarchy and then demand tools to shirk the job they refused todo in the first place?

Re: Coding is when we're least productive

#46

Post by beej71 » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 3:49 PM UTC

Nevermark wrote: post #2

Coding is when we carefully write down our solution to a problem. (Manager pushes paper, pen and a list of problems in front of you and demands, “Now write, just write! And fast!”)

This is what I tell my students. The hard part of programming is the understand and plan phases and barely any of that takes place at the keyboard. The rest is just typing in your completed plan.

And if you find yourself going in circles while you're typing in code, you probably didn't complete the plan phase.

Re: Coding is when we're least productive

#47

Post by em-bee » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 4:19 PM UTC

solumunus wrote: post #10

cjfd wrote: post #7

E.W. Dijkstra: "Measuring programming progress by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight". Personally, I think, much of the art of programming is to do as much as possible with as few lines of code as possible.

There’s more to it than that though. The solution using the least possible lines is often inscrutable and brittle. The art is in finding the right level of abstraction which can deliver the performance required while being sufficiently legible. Depending on the specific problem you have to weight your solution accordingly, if performance is critical you must often forfeit legibility. The art is in recognising and dea…

when building an airplane one of the goals is to figure out what you can remove without affecting the stability of the plane. performance (use of fuel) matters here too. so it's kind-of the same thing?

Re: Coding is when we're least productive

#48

Post by bartread » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 4:59 PM UTC

polyamid23 wrote: post #14

„Managers aim to maximise the amount of code their dev teams produce, and so they maximise the time devs spend writing code.„ Never seen that happen. Do not know anyone who experienced this. Where and who are those managers?

Yeah. I have occasionally seen the opposite: worked a couple of places where leaders were so keen for people not to write code it became frustrating. But never had anyone breathing down my neck to spend more time writing code.

I will say this. After all the thinking and discussion is done, code is the means by which the desired value is realised, so if you're an engineer and you never write any at all there is a chance you might not be as involved in delivering that value as you might like to think. Plenty of situations where that's not true, of course, but it's definitely one of those things that can be a smell.

Re: Coding is when we're least productive

#49

Post by svilen_dobrev » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 5:23 PM UTC

assaddayinh wrote: post #45

The problem is not with code, its with management having no real perception of the problemspace they inhabitate and how they damage and polute said space. The myriad of "nocode" aka i dont want to deal with the whole complexity solutions tells you what its really all about. How do you get a caste todo its job when all they do is refuse the call to adventure, smear responsibility over hierarchy and then demand tools t…

especially if you include the total refusal of that caste to take responsibility - e.g. compliance - hence looking for any possibility to outsource that, be it M$ or AWS or (now new kid on da blok) "AI"

Re: Coding is when we're least productive

#50

Post by assaddayinh » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 6:12 PM UTC

svilen_dobrev wrote: post #49

assaddayinh wrote: post #45

The problem is not with code, its with management having no real perception of the problemspace they inhabitate and how they damage and polute said space. The myriad of "nocode" aka i dont want to deal with the whole complexity solutions tells you what its really all about. How do you get a caste todo its job when all they do is refuse the call to adventure, smear responsibility over hierarchy and then demand tools t…

especially if you include the total refusal of that caste to take responsibility - e.g. compliance - hence looking for any possibility to outsource that, be it M$ or AWS or (now new kid on da blok) "AI"

Wish there was a "capable" first management tracking tool, that rates organisations and companies by ability to create, maintain and innovate in tech. Sort of a reverse linkedIn for company culture, but only focused on that, department by department, not culture, no ammenities, just engineering culture. Must be worth something to not be stuck for a year or two in an invisible dead end filled with tech debt and pressure.