Key Takeaways
- Dhanji Prasanna is the Chief Technical Officer of fintech firm Block, which runs Money App and Afterpay.
- On a podcast, Prasanna mentioned that engineers ought to deal with goal over excellent code.
- Block processed over $66 billion price of funds for the quarter ending June 30, a ten% year-over-year development.
Dhanji Prasanna, the Chief Technical Officer of fintech firm Block and a former Google software program engineer, says that “code high quality doesn’t make you profitable” — what really issues is fixing actual issues for customers.
On an episode of “Lenny’s Podcast,” launched on Sunday, Prasanna mentioned that “a whole lot of engineers assume that code high quality is necessary to constructing a profitable product.” In actuality, “the 2 don’t have anything to do with one another,” he added. In line with Prasanna, a profitable product is dependent upon how successfully it addresses consumer wants — not on how clear the code is.
Prasanna illustrated his level by drawing on an instance from his time at Google. Earlier than he began working at Google (he labored there rom 2008 to 2011, as a software program engineer and technical lead, per his LinkedIn), the corporate acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006. Google engineers have been shocked by YouTube’s “horrible” code structure, Prasanna mentioned. But YouTube outperformed the better-constructed Google Video and have become one among Google’s greatest success tales.
Associated: Morgan Stanley Created an AI Instrument to Repair the Most Annoying A part of Coding. Right here’s How It Works.
Prasanna mentioned that the lesson there was that “excellent code doesn’t make an important product — fixing actual issues does.” He urged engineers to prioritize goal over technical perfection.
“Simply deal with what we’re making an attempt to construct and who we’re making an attempt to construct for,” Prasanna suggested. “All this code will be thrown away tomorrow.”
Block, the corporate he works at now, employs practically a thousand engineers, about 36% of the corporate’s complete staff. The rising fintech agency processed over $66 billion price of funds for the quarter ending June 30, a ten% yr–over-year development. The corporate operates Money App, a cellular fee and banking app utilized by 57 million individuals globally each month, in addition to Afterpay, a buy-now-pay-later service.
Associated: There Are New Guidelines for ‘Purchase Now, Pay Later’ Applications — Right here’s What to Know
Different tech executives have emphasised coding as a necessary talent, even within the age of AI. OpenAI researcher Szymon Sidor mentioned in August on an episode of the OpenAI podcast that prime faculty college students ought to nonetheless learn to code, arguing that the follow develops problem-solving and important considering expertise.
“One talent that’s at premium, and can proceed being at premium, is to have a extremely structured mind that may break difficult issues into items,” Sidor mentioned on the podcast, including that “programming is a advantageous method to purchase that talent.”
In the meantime, Google’s head of analysis, Yossi Matias, informed Enterprise Insider final yr that coding is like fundamental math, a foundational self-discipline everybody ought to be taught.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang introduced a distinct perspective, specializing in AI capabilities to take over coding. Huang mentioned in June on stage at London Tech Week that since AI now permits non-technical customers to write down code by giving prompts in plain English, there’s not a must be taught coding languages like Python and C++ to develop code. The follow of prompting AI to write down code is named “vibe coding” and signifies that even non-technical customers can rapidly create apps and webpages.
Associated: The CEO of a Billion-Greenback Vibe Coding Startup Says You Can Break Into Tech With out a Pc Science Diploma
Large Tech firms are more and more tapping into AI to write down new code, as an alternative of asking human engineers to manually write it.
In April, Google CEO Sundar Pichai mentioned that AI wrote “properly over 30%” of recent code at Google, increased than the 25% indicated final yr. In the identical month, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella acknowledged that AI is writing as much as 30% of code for the corporate.
Key Takeaways
- Dhanji Prasanna is the Chief Technical Officer of fintech firm Block, which runs Money App and Afterpay.
- On a podcast, Prasanna mentioned that engineers ought to deal with goal over excellent code.
- Block processed over $66 billion price of funds for the quarter ending June 30, a ten% year-over-year development.
Dhanji Prasanna, the Chief Technical Officer of fintech firm Block and a former Google software program engineer, says that “code high quality doesn’t make you profitable” — what really issues is fixing actual issues for customers.
On an episode of “Lenny’s Podcast,” launched on Sunday, Prasanna mentioned that “a whole lot of engineers assume that code high quality is necessary to constructing a profitable product.” In actuality, “the 2 don’t have anything to do with one another,” he added. In line with Prasanna, a profitable product is dependent upon how successfully it addresses consumer wants — not on how clear the code is.
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