The Best Line of Code Is the One You Never Write

Short summary

An essay arguing that the best code is code never written, since every line adds maintenance liability. It contrasts clever functional-style code with simple imperative loops in Go, showing that readability and clarity scale better than conciseness. The piece warns that AI code generation amplifies the problem by producing reasonable-looking code no one fully owns, making global domain understanding and simplicity even more critical.

• •Every line of code is a liability; simplicity and clarity beat cleverness at scale
• •Go's design nudges toward boring, readable code that outperforms impressive solutions
• •AI code generation risks code inflation; humans must optimize globally, not locally

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.