Before 2023 I remember everyone here on HN championed that removing lines of code was the strongest senior metric

arent they still? or at least a lot. its too much current to win the swim race against the deluge of llm LOC. but i also disagree with some of the things the author just casually lays out, which is whether the LLMs can write good code. they write working code, but it looks written by a demogorgon and i get a bit ill seeing it. its bad but not bad in a way that a human would ever write, like i dont get that kind of sick reading spaghetti code written by new devs. it's a kind of sick like cthulhus eggs are hatching somewhere in your guts.

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bluGill 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Removing lines of code without removing functionality.

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esafak 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Simplification is still good. I remember one senior that only removed code when he joined the company I was at until he became a manager!

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hungryhobbit 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Ok, I like the idea and support that seniors value simplicity ... but how the hell do you stay employed for even a month (let alone until "manager time") without writing any code?

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LtWorf 3 hours ago | parent [-]

You don't just delete stuff… it's more that your pull requests remove more lines than they add. But I'm sure the person you're replying to is exaggerating, or they got promoted because of completely unrelated reasons.

	▲	vyaa an hour ago \| parent [-]
		It’s pretty common for me to deliver a feature while removing more lines than I added in React. Just so many useless useEffects and states and divs. The caveat is I have to be allowed to refactor related code. I find it’s less common for me in ruby, even refactoring bad ruby. Sure I can remove lines but bad JS/React balloons so fast. My current org values this and my direct boss constantly praises those of us that try to remove more lines than we add. Very refreshing.