Stop Looking at Code?

Question

There is a recent trend in tech where software development is being done by not looking at code but merely the output.Some of the recent examples include the Bun Rust migration, etc. I wanted to understand both from startup&rsquo;s and experienced individuals how do you see the trend, are we really moving towards a workflow where we simply optimize the loop or graph and code is merely an artifact this is produced as part of this workflow similar to bytecode or something?

_doctor_love · Accepted Answer

This is where industry is heading long-term, yes. Will take many years to get there. My favorite examples so far are from StrongDM. See https://factory.strongdm.ai/

knighthacker · Answer

I'm a huge proponent of that with my team. We stopped doing PR reviews and instead do session reviews. It just makes so much more sense now. It's more important to understand the conversation, context, decisions made, why were they made that way, and so forth. More than the lines of code themselves, especially with the massive increase in PRs volume.
Wrote about it here: https://aq.dev/guides/how-to-review-an-ai-coding-session/ and how we do it here: https://aq.dev/guides/how-to-review-an-ai-coding-session/
I hope this helps.
Disclosure: I'm the founder of AQ.dev

spottedmarley · Answer

I'm retired from a 20+ year career as a software developer and today I build (I almost said "I write" lol) more applications now than I ever have in my life. I build constantly, all the things I've always wished somebody else would make. Seemingly millions of lines of code.. and I rarely even take a peek anymore. I did for the first couple of months, mostly because I felt compelled to keep up with what was being written but, eventually, especially since Opus 4.8 and beyond, it's just extra time I don't need to spend. I've come to trust Claude to a very high degree. It's a whole new paradigm, obviously. To have an idea and not really give much thought to how to write it, more important is how to describe it in as much detail as your right brain can conjure. I still write sometimes for fun and that's when I get my alone time with lines of code.

jryan49 · Answer

AI makes mistakes like humans. We used to review human's code because humans make mistakes. What the hell has changed? I mean it's pretty effective to have another agent review the code too, but I still find it doesn't catch all of the things I do. Also don't tell me the tests you didn't even read will make sure it all works :)