I Used To Review Code. I Still Do. And That's It.

This week, I stopped writing code.

Well—mostly. Whelp.If I end up without a job soon, that’ll be hilarious. I think I’ll become a low-voltage electrician. What about you, fellow engineer?

I let an agent—claude-opus-4-6 in a tight harness—take over the part of my job that’s cheaper than ever: writing code.

And somehow, it’s reignited my love for computer science.

For context: I’ve been professionally reviewing closed-source code—mostly JavaScript-for over a decade. Ever since I somehow got hiredThanks, Glen & Simon—you firing me from that webdev job set me on a trajectory I never would have imagined..

And I love code review.

Every reviewer has a different style. Different instincts. Different blind spots. And sometimes, someone shows up like a troll under a bridge and blocks your merge for reasons that can absolutely derail your day.

It’s fucking hilarious. But far from a joke.

I’ve seen a lot go down in GitHub PRs. Reputations made. Ruined. Feelings hurt. Egos inflated. The occasional Silicon Valley moment.

I once saw a staff engineer defer a PR until their ADHD meds were back in stock. They were fired three days later.

I’ve even cried after a particularly brutal review from one of the most opinionated principals I’ve worked with.

That’s the job. I don’t think that part’s going away anytime soon.

Code review has always been the real guardrail.

Good code isn’t written—it’s refined. Argued over. Torn apart. Carried over into passive-aggressive Slack DM’s. Rebuilt from scratch—waaaay after the PR’s been created.

It’s just that now, the author isn’t a person anymore.

When these agent-generated PRs come in, I skip the explanation, usually a massive wall of textYes, I get the irony—this blog post is a massive wall of text. At least it has a pulse., and go straight to the code.

I tear it apart. Have them correct everything to make it good code that I will forever take responsibility for.

No waiting a day between revisions. No softened feedback.

I can do it from my phone. While holding my cat.

I can even make it apologize. Publicly.

One line in the prompt.

I guess that’s the code I’m still actually writing.

They got us on hard drugs.

And I think I’m starting to like it.