> Code doesn't matter IN THE EARLY DAYS.

> This is similar to what I've observed over 25 years in the industry. In a startup, the code doesn't really matter; the market fit does.

> But as time goes on your codebase has to mature, or else you end up using more and more resources on maintenance rather than innovation.

Counterpoint: Code does matter, in the early days too!

It matters more after you have PMF, but that doesn't mean it doesn't matter pre-PMF.

After all, the code is a step-by-step list of instructions on solving a specific pain point for a specific target market.

Claude Code (and other agent tools) are not expected to be mature. They'll all be obsolete in two or three years, replaced by the next generation of AI tools. Everyone knows that.

In less than four years the AI coding workflow has been overhauled at least twice: from Chat interface (ChatGPT) to editor integration (Cursor), then to CLI agent harnesses (CC/Codex). It would be crazy to assume that harnesses are the end of evolution.

Code quality aside (n.b. there exist many bad quality codebases before AI), a risk I perceive as an industry is we are making the logic of our businesses dependent on a few big players.

Given the output speed, it's practically impossible for developers to keep up, which directly impacts maintenance: the knowledge that would previously reside in-house, now is becoming dependent on having codebases pre-processed by LLMs.

I hope in the near future local LLMs will gain traction and provide an alternative, otherwise we are in the risky path where businesses are over-reliant on a few big companies.

This code matters for exactly one reason: they’re playing stupid DRM games restricting what subscriber tokens can be used for to force you to use their front ends and harnesses or buy more expensive API credits.

Claude Code is strictly worse than e.g. OpenCode in my experience. Not much to see in the app’s code except how it authenticates itself…

Sure I try and use all my subscription allowance with CC on side tasks, etc. but I still end up burning a bunch of API tokens (via OpenRouter) for more serious work (even the UI and ability to quickly review what the agent has done/is doing is vastly inferior in CC).

What they have done is got me experimenting with cheaper models from other providers with those API credits.

My CTO mentioned today how we haven't ever had to revision our API such that it breaks users, and even then, our v2 is still so compatible that client builds from 2017 are still vaguely useful for the end user.

But now everything is, "ship as fast as is humanly possible, literally" from management, and "garbage Claude-written PRs" from devs. Trying to maintain sanity over my monorepo is impossible.

We have nearly a century of examples of "somebody who only mostly understands making a breaking change" and decided, "what the hell, this thing is called Claude, so it can wreak havoc for as long as corporate decides"

You are right.

But you can use AI to improve your codebase too. Plus models are only going to get smarter from here (or stay the same).

alternatively the code can go the way of "fast fashion" and even "3d-print your garments in the morning according to your feelings and weather and recycle at the end of the day".

If dealing with a functionality that is splittable into microfeatures/microservices, then anything that you need right now can potentially be vibe-coded, even on the fly (and deleted afterwards). Single-use code.

>But as time goes on your codebase has to mature, or else you end up using more and more resources on maintenance rather than innovation.

tremendous resource sink in enterprise software. Solving it, even if making it just avoidable - may be Anthropic goes that way and leads the others - would be a huge revolution.

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