Agreed.

"Code was never the hard part" is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Making something work, has always been easier than making something someone can read. AIs also, seem to benefit from clean abstractions, appropriate code reuse, etc. (coincidentally, the thing they suck most at).

It's the same thing with english, except that english doesn't have a compiler. Comprehension is the only measure of communication if you're talking about a human language. Programming shares the same goal. Both, often also need to do something else useful. Programming, and lawyering, have a lot more in common than people think.

We're creating a culture of sh*tting on codebases so the highest paid execs can cash out when things get tough. It isn't a new phenomenon, but it's one we'll need to endure until enough people lose enough money that the accountants start taking notice and start saying "you should be more careful, or you'll lose your shirt". In the interim, the people that care are working insane hours to try to protect the things they believe in from inevitable doom, and risking being fired to do it. There is a balance to both sides, and the jury is out on whether or not anthropic/openai/alibaba can save us from the future we are creating now with short-term goals.