this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2026
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It's the old lines of code metric style of thinking.
The people in charge only know line go up means better and bigger number is better.
Its only when things go wrong and someone ELI5 for them that they listen. And even then it'll wear off in a week and they'll be on to their next make the number bigger obsession.
I've had to explain this to more executives than I wish to remember. Computer code is a recipe, not a cake. When you see a recipe that's super long, and requires two kitchens worth of bakeware and tools, you probably think it's a bad recipe. Short, elegant, easy to follow recipes with a little note in the margin from your grandmother about what to do when the dough is too sticky are the best recipes.
Unfortunately, one learned the exact wrong lesson from this, and started measuring lower lines of code produced as better... Which worked for a while, but lead to a lot of weirdness around new features for no particular reason.
Hey boss, I just got that new feature submitted for review. I managed to get it all on a single line of code! No, that one line has like 5000 characters, why do you ask?
"Sorry, can't add that feature. That would take at least another 20 lines of code and I can't lose my leaderboard ranking. Not with Steven in second place..."
I've said it for years: qualitative is better than quantitative. It's just that it doesn't look as nice and objective on reports. This obsession with numbers has been a bane on society for a long time.
I love this metaphor. totes stealing it. 😊