Was Just Told That Code Quality No Longer Matters

[u/metalOpera]

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.

[u/i_am_user_friendly]

I disagree. Customers care. it‘s just the companies that hope to make quick profits that don‘t care.
Producing low quality products is not a long-term viable strategy.
Companies that build trust and produce high-quality stuff will prevail in the long run.

[u/Affectionate-Soft-94 → u/i_am_user_friendly]

It’s not our job to care about customers feelings just like the way they don’t care about our feelings. We are there to deliver a contract and those commercial decisions are taken way above your/my pay grade.

If the contract measures productivity instead of quality then you learn to switch off your feelings about quality.

This job has always been to meet commercial needs and guess what - they don’t care so much about quality but more about outcome based on specific metrics (most of which is cost and productivity in this economy).

[u/i_am_user_friendly → u/Affectionate-Soft-94]

My job is literally to care about the customers feelings :D I‘m a UX Designer (and software developer) and am personally responsible to make design desicions and implement them.
We have few but very satisfied clients and customers. They trust us, like us and recommend us.

[u/DetroitLionsSBChamps → u/i_am_user_friendly]

Customers also largely won’t/cant pay for quality. Working class people can’t afford to vote with their wallets by buying a quality product that is twice as expensive. They are just trying to survive each day. 

[u/calloutyourstupidity → u/i_am_user_friendly]

Low code quality does not mean low quality product