Do you still READ code? Should you?

00:00:00: Do you still read the code or should use to read?

00:00:04: The Code?

00:00:04: that's a question at discussion.

00:00:06: That came up on tech X over the weekend In my bubble, at least and it's an interesting question obviously also nice rage bait Question.

00:00:15: but that's not what this episode shall be about And I'll answer the question.

00:00:20: It's not as simple yes Or no for me and i also want to hear your thoughts are really do.

00:00:25: so please share them too!

00:00:27: and I'll get back to this question here, but i think another question has come first.

00:00:32: Do you still write the code?

00:00:35: Because obviously if-if you still right all your code... You will read it!

00:00:40: Right so yeah..you don't need to read because you wrote it.

00:00:43: But for many developers myself included We probably DON'T write ALL our code And you can be anywhere on a range of zero to one hundred percent.

00:00:55: Regarding that question how much code you still write?

00:00:59: I probably am pretty close to a hundred percent by now already and That definitely changed a lot over the last six eight months as it did for many developers.

00:01:10: I'm sure with AI models getting better, but most importantly those models being Better at following instructions.

00:01:18: Being fine-tuned for following instructions better and then the surrounding tools like Claude code and so on.

00:01:23: So that changed for me And I've talked about that in another episode how that also sucks a lot of joy out of that craft and I'm trying to find new joy in the building stuff, but this is off course.

00:01:43: the first important question.

00:01:45: Do you still write?

00:01:55: I think it's too early to tell what the right place is on that scale, because we're still early in that entire AI evolution when it comes to coding and will have see long-term effects of more software being fully AI generated as.

00:02:20: But what about that other one now?

00:02:21: Do you still read the code.

00:02:22: Well, again this is complex because we can split it up.

00:02:26: We have reading the code and I would say we have caring about the code And for me That Is not The same.

00:02:36: and You Can also Read but Not Care Which Is kind of Dumb and i'll get Back to that or not read and care which is Possible i Would argue and It has Implications.

00:02:47: so as Mentioned you may not read and not care.

00:02:52: You may READ AND NOT CARE, you may NOT READ BUT CARE... And of course you may REED AND CARE!

00:03:02: These are the four combinations if you have this split-off of reading & caring Now If YOU DON'T READ and you don't care.

00:03:11: that is my definition of vibe coding.

00:03:14: Now you may have a different definition and that is fine, but this is my definition of vibe coding.

00:03:20: Not reading not caring.

00:03:21: That's why I'm quoting now.

00:03:22: that does NOT mean that you don't care about the product.

00:03:25: You probably do because if you DON'T CARE ABOUT THE PRODUCT WHY ARE YOU DOING SOMETHING IN THE FIRST PLACE?

00:03:31: RIGHT BUT YOU MAY JUST CARE ABOUT THE PRODOCT.

00:03:33: IF IT WORKS YOU'RE HAPPY.

00:03:34: IF THERE IS AN ISSUE YOU JUST TELL THE AI HEY BUBBLES NOT WORKING.

00:03:38: PLEASE FIX AND YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT THE CODE AND YOU DON'T READ THE COTE.

00:03:42: that is my definition of vibe coding.

00:03:44: Now, if you read the code but don't care... That's kind of weird!

00:03:49: I guess your just killing time in this case?

00:03:52: If u reed but not care.. You may be at a job where you're paid to do something so spend your time analyzing codes when you dont really care.

00:04:00: i dont know Not really my focus here But sure ,you could have that combination.

00:04:06: Here are combinations which are more interesting though Not reading and caring and reading and caring.

00:04:11: Now let's start with reading and carrying.

00:04:13: I guess that's the obvious one, i guess you could call this AI powered software engineering or something like that?

00:04:20: um because you may not write the code anymore or not all of it but you care about it as a software engineer you maybe responsible for it and you read it because since you care About It Since You May Be Responsible For It Well...you want to see what is going on there right?

00:04:35: Makes sense.

00:04:36: So that's an obvious one.

00:04:37: And I'll get back to it, but what about not reading and caring?

00:04:40: Is this even

00:04:44: possible?".

00:04:51: Worrying answer first.

00:04:52: I don't know obviously, I don' t know if that is the future Just as four years ago?

00:04:58: I wouldn't have imagined That one day we would not be writing to code anymore.

00:05:03: I may just not be imagining yet that one.

00:05:06: they were Not reading the code any more at all.

00:05:09: In reality though We would probably end up on a scale like this and i Would argue we already are On a scale Like This.

00:05:15: but again i'll get back To this.

00:05:16: so not Reading And Caring.

00:05:18: Is This Even Possible?

00:05:21: As I mentioned, i would say yeah it probably is but its a totally different way of thinking about software.

00:05:27: It relies on you trusting the AI not just when it comes to writing code but your also using AI for reviewing and scanning or analyzing your codebase for auditing your code base Fable five or whatever, or codex.

00:05:49: Or pie my favorite agent with your favorite AI model to work on the code and then you could use The same agent in a new session With the same or different model?

00:06:12: You can and you probably should also spend a lot of time planning.

00:06:18: And reading those plans, reading those specs... I think not reading the code if done right- If that is the future!

00:06:29: ...should NOT imply that you don't read anything.

00:06:32: You SHOULD absolutely spent more time then creating good plans to gather with AI making sure Working on the right stuff with the right Implementation details if you want to put it like this.

00:06:47: so in the right way You don't just care about the product.

00:06:56: Ensure, or not ensure but increase the chances of getting good results there.

00:07:02: if you spend more time on the specs On the plans and then let AI implement it.

00:07:08: And You Then have code reviews where you give their reviewing agent also access to that spec Or two that plan the AI should implement.

00:07:16: now still Of course one problem you'll Have here which is why I'm NOT ON THAT.

00:07:21: i don't read anything train that you don't know with certainty what's going on in your code base.

00:07:29: You can't, just can't know if you're not reading it!

00:07:39: and you don't read it at all, And You just sign It.

00:07:57: You Don't have certainty.

00:07:58: What's in there?

00:08:00: And you may or May not be doing that?

00:08:02: I Personally don't do That.

00:08:06: i personally Do Still Read Code but!

00:08:10: Thats Now the Interesting Part.

00:08:12: Maybe Again On A Scale.

00:08:15: I DON'T READ ONE HUNDRED PERCENT OF THE CODE.

00:08:20: I Have a Hard Time Telling You Where Exactly I am on That Scale.

00:08:24: It may be somewhere in the middle because I review all code AI gives me, but of course that does not mean they read every single line necessarily.

00:08:43: are the important ones.

00:08:52: I dive into those, analyze them and then dive in to some parts where i know that AI likes to mess up!

00:09:00: That is how our review and i may just scan or briefly skim over the less-important part.

00:09:07: For example when it comes to the AI writing code for reading environment variables I may not read every line there.

00:09:24: I don't know how this will change.

00:09:46: How it may be moving closer to not reading one hundred percent now, i don't Know if i'll ever get two One hundred percent?

00:09:54: i can't look into the future and i guess If we get to one hundred for both writing and reading We really have see what that means for us as software engineers, it may still be super important to give AI the right tasks.

00:10:11: To know about designing systems and about architecture... And this would.

00:10:15: my guess is that we are moving in this direction but obviously that's hard to tell!

00:10:22: The question will be if at some point you wouldn't write any code or read any code.

00:10:28: If you need to know How to code right if it's worth being able To read or write code, right?

00:10:35: If that still important and Right now.

00:10:37: It definitely still is for me And definitely still Is also because the question is what do you care about?

00:10:44: right?

00:10:44: That's The other part caring reading as one Part.

00:10:48: but we read Because We care and we may Care Without Reading As I made it clear.

00:10:53: But What Does Care?

00:10:54: Even Mean and i would say care Obviously Can mean a lot of things.

00:11:03: It may mean something like the code style, you make care about the code-style how functions are created which approaches use their... You may even care about bigger decisions like if you want object oriented programming functional programing stuff like that um..You may care About the readability of your program!

00:11:30: and about stuff like reliability.

00:11:33: And there are many other dimensions we could think of, but There are some dimensions here which I say matter less now.

00:11:39: code style readability especially if you don't read not too important it's just important.

00:11:45: in that case i mean the AI is able to Read and understand the code.

00:11:50: And it most likely will be fine with that.

00:11:53: now Code style can still matter also for token efficiency reasons.

00:11:58: if you have a code base where You just have a lot of unnecessary checks which as mentioned is something AI right?

00:12:03: Now tends to do or some AI models tend to That will also be extra tokens to burn when the AI analyzes that code.

00:12:11: So, that is still some thing here but it may not matter as much.

00:12:17: in the past I mean we all had our own preferences regarding code style and for me that definitely changed.

00:12:26: Now obviously though stuff like security reliability testability That still matters a lot.

00:12:34: Obviously, that is the part if anything in software you want it to do what should be done.

00:12:43: You may care about performance and should not crash randomly on your users.

00:12:51: And of course these are all things we're seeing with modern softwares.

00:12:54: Modern software often isn't reliable but may NOT be secure Not achievable, especially with these AI models being quite good at finding security vulnerabilities and us not necessarily having access to the latest model that can do but you should still care about it.

00:13:13: That is my point!

00:13:14: You should try to build secure reliable performance software.

00:13:19: in my opinion And as a software engineer, that of course also means you may want to give your input regarding which libraries to use in our project.

00:13:30: So this is where we then move more into the systems design or software architecture area and these are things.

00:13:48: Having good specs, having good plans is important.

00:13:52: if you get closer to one hundred percent not reading.

00:13:55: Which again may not be the case for you This is all something where there is no wrong or right as I try to make it clear.

00:14:03: so These parts do get more important specs, plans.

00:14:08: Because again you want to definitely ensure security and reliability.

00:14:12: if you don't care about code style or readability as much anymore which may very well be the case.

00:14:19: And therefore of course this entire question off Do You Still Read?

00:14:22: The Code is obviously Also a bit of rage bait as I mentioned before and not as easy to answer And there just is no right or wrong here.

00:14:33: And by the way, this should be obvious.

00:14:36: but There also is a big difference if you have Something some software running in production maybe being used by thousands hundreds of thousands Or millions of people?

00:14:46: And it all depends on which area are your working in.

00:14:49: i mean If you're working in banking let's say Errors in your software may have catastrophic Consequences and not just banking.

00:15:00: There are even more important parts of banking obviously health defense tech all that stuff.

00:15:05: so That is an important aspect.

00:15:10: If you are an indie hacker with zero users, yes sure You may not care about the code too much.

00:15:18: But overall I think we can still see a trend or maybe just as with writing code, where all of us are moving closer to one hundred percent for not reading the code.

00:15:44: Can we care without reading?

00:15:46: Will that really, really work.

00:15:49: I'm not sure for me... ...I don't have the trust in AI and i am not sure if or when it will change.

00:15:56: It may change!

00:15:57: Not ruling out just as writing code has changed But right now im still more into read-and-care part Or somewhere between because As mentioned Im somewhere in middle of that scale.

00:16:11: But as I also mentioned, please let me know where you are.

00:16:15: Zero percent reading one hundred percent reading maybe still a hundred percent writing.

00:16:19: that may also be the right way to go.

00:16:22: Let me now and let me your thoughts about this entire topic in general