There is a classic debate in developer circles: tabs vs. spaces. Readable code needs indentation (or if your Python it’s mandatory) and how you indented the code with a tab character or with a number of spaces, was a matter of nearly religious fervor.
Then code linting and formatting tools got good enough and integrated enough that no one thinks about this anymore. You define your standard, everyone’s editors (or agents) pick it up and all your code uses the “right” character for indentation.
This is one of a dozen or more code style rules that have no categorical right or wrong answers, but every company, every project has its own rules and keeping track of them used to take up headspace. As of eight years ago or so, no one thinks about it.
Agents have turned more and more concerns into tabs vs. spaces. End-to-end tests are vital, what framework should you use? Do you even need to know now? What front-end framework are you using? Does it matter?
What language is under the hood? Claude loves to write Python scripts. I don’t know Python well at all, does it matter? Hasn’t yet.
Here’s the real hot take: software engineering isn’t about writing code any more.
It’s about:
- Can you break the problem down in your head into agent solvable chunks?
- Can you then build those chunks in the right order so that the solution comes together?
- Can you review each chunk to make sure it does what you intend?
In the same way that automattic linting cleared the mental overhead from tabs vs. spaces, agents are clearing more and more. That overhead now can be devoted to the actual problems you are trying to solve.