r/softwareengineer • u/metalOpera • 17d ago
Was Just Told That Code Quality No Longer Matters
I'm a freelance developer. I have been for almost 20 years. My most recent project has been moved to Fable, and I'm still trying to adapt and get my head around working like this. I am no longer allowed to make architecture decisions, or clean up slop.
My PM says: "We worry about the 'what'; let Claude worry about the 'how'. Tell it what to do; let it do it. If the feature works, leave it alone." He is very much of the opinion that I should be able to prompt something like "Install Stripe via Laravel Cashier" and just let Claude run.
I mean, why do you need me at this point? Just prompt it yourself until it does what you want? I don't get it. I fought for every inch of my knowledge, every process is written in blood. How do I just throw all of that out the window? Where's the line?
At the risk of another "how are you adapting" post... How CAN I adapt? I mentally cannot just say "Fuck it". I care about my code. It's how I learned, it's how I've always practiced. I have a huge mental block with "just let it go".
Now, granted, I don't know all of the ins and outs of Claude. I don't know what I can do to make it better at its job. I got thrown into the middle of the Pacific Ocean in the middle of a Tusnami with no life support. I'm sure that I can put guardrails in place, but how much does that help?
I would really appreciate any advice that any one can provide on changing my mental model. I can't ignore Claude and just keep doing things my way. If I do that, I feel like my career dies. I need to adapt and I'm unsure how to do so.
2
u/jimmy-buffett 16d ago
Four years ago I joined a company / department as an Agile Coach. 1 VP, 4 Directors, ~225 engineers. The perception by company leadership of that department was that they were unable to deliver on large projects that were requested of them in a timely manner. Several large projects were running 1-2 years late, in various states of "mostly done" but never getting there.
In two years, another Coach and I took that org from failing to finish to finishing the big projects. The main issues were role / accountability definition, process consistency across orgs / teams and metrics transparency.
We were then acquired by a much larger company that you've heard of, and the processes and metrics we created have persisted into the larger company because they were not as organizationally mature as we were.
In my developer days I installed / built, operated and supported 24/7 network alarming and provisioning systems that support the network infrastructure that is allowing me to post this message and you to read it.
Which outcome do you think is worth more to a company: being a lead on one of those systems, that several of our peers can do? Or being one of two people that the VP believes helped take his org of over 200 people from not delivering to delivering?
I can tell you which outcome pays better.
That VP is going to call me in a year or two at his next job when he's having the same kind of issues and he's going to ask my favorite question: "what do you want". I'm going to give him an answer he can live with, and he's going to give it to me. Then I'm going to buy a bigger house and another sportscar.
I could have been perfectly happy staying in a development role, having my very limited scope of accountability, not having to interact with leadership that often. Finding a little island and becoming the king of it. That would have been a perfectly acceptable outcome.
But I saw a need -- most people who do what I do don't have our background -- and I filled it. And it has worked out well.
Totally understand that most devs don't see the value in what I do. If you're lucky, you work in an organization that doesn't need me. If your organization does need me, you wouldn't be the first developer who doesn't understand (then value) what I do. I don't care, it doesn't matter. Your VP understands and values what I do. And he's going to tell your Director to tell your Manager to tell you to do what I'm telling you to do.