this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2026
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Programming

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The Bosses Are Coding Again (blog.herlein.com)
submitted 6 days ago by codeinabox@programming.dev to c/programming@programming.dev
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Somewhere in the last year, a bunch of us who hadn’t shipped real code in years quietly started shipping again. Not reviewing it. Not architecting it in a doc and handing it off. Actually building it. And loving it.

I lead software for a living. That means my days are meetings, roadmaps, hiring, unblocking people, and saying “no” a lot. The last time “writing code” was my actual job was a long time ago. I never stopped being able to code — I stopped having the time to code. At least in my day job. There’s a difference, and every engineering leader reading this feels it in their bones.

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[–] codeinabox@programming.dev -4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Could you qualify what you mean by "idiots"? The author and the examples he gives - Kent Beck, David Heinemeier Hansson, and Garry Tan - are all very experienced software engineers.

[–] resipsaloquitur@lemmy.cafe 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

By idiots I mean the people who haven’t engineered in years.

The subject of the article.

Seems self-evident.

[–] codeinabox@programming.dev -4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Well that depends on how quickly you believe that engineering skills atrophy without use.

Though, I'd argue programming is like riding a bike. Even after a long break, it's not difficult to get back into it, as the fundamentals for programming haven't changed.

[–] resipsaloquitur@lemmy.cafe 2 points 6 days ago

If they’ve stopped engineering, then they probably weren’t good in the first place, what skills they had are rusty, and their knowledge is out of date.

I’d argue programming languages are like natural languages. Use it or lose it.