As a software engineer, I've always cared about writing good code because I wasn't writing it for computers, I was writing it for other people who also work on it. However, since AI took over a few months ago, I've had doubts about whether this is a wasted effort.
I've been back and forth on this, but after working on a few AI-coded apps, I have, for now, confirmed my belief that it still matters whether the codebase is robust.
Firstly, I believed that it does not matter what's under the hood if it works. But I found that I can't make it work without the code being robust, testable, and maintainable to a certain degree.
Therefore, I am linking my article that explores this a bit more and shares what I think are the three most important points that you should still care about writing good code, which are:
1. AI will train on it - the most long-term reason, most people won't care, but it does affect everyone
2. You still need to do the final touches - it's probably not a good idea to prompt for one-line changes, it's like calling an electrician to change the lightbulb
3. Software is never done, and it should be easy to change - AI will struggle with more tokens, and you with more time, if your code is not of good quality
Anyway, I am just sharing my shower thoughts and hopefully will start an interesting discussion.
As a software engineer, I've always cared about writing good code because I wasn't writing it for computers, I was writing it for other people who also work on it. However, since AI took over a few months ago, I've had doubts about whether this is a wasted effort.
I've been back and forth on this, but after working on a few AI-coded apps, I have, for now, confirmed my belief that it still matters whether the codebase is robust.
Firstly, I believed that it does not matter what's under the hood if it works. But I found that I can't make it work without the code being robust, testable, and maintainable to a certain degree.
Therefore, I am linking my article that explores this a bit more and shares what I think are the three most important points that you should still care about writing good code, which are:
1. AI will train on it - the most long-term reason, most people won't care, but it does affect everyone
2. You still need to do the final touches - it's probably not a good idea to prompt for one-line changes, it's like calling an electrician to change the lightbulb
3. Software is never done, and it should be easy to change - AI will struggle with more tokens, and you with more time, if your code is not of good quality
Anyway, I am just sharing my shower thoughts and hopefully will start an interesting discussion.
100% human written with AI used for spelling!
Yes you should. Good code means you understand it and can fix it.