flâneur

Claude Is Not a Compiler - exe.dev blog

blog.exe.dev · 1,745 words · saved by 2 readers

I’m now pretty sure the answer is “no, that’s a category error, it’s better than a compiler.” But this requires a bit of unpacking. Computer programs are notoriously intricate and finicky. A program operates at an extreme level of precision. There is no “wave hands” CPU instruction. High-level goals, meanwhile, are deeply underspecified. In a highly stylized view of the world, software gets built in layers, each one adding specification and hiding “unnecessary” detail. Vision becomes strategy, product plans become coding plans, code becomes binaries. Each step is handled by a different role: executive, VP, PM, architect, engineer, compiler. Critically, every step involves making lots of decisions. That’s what it means to increase the level of specification. (This is why one of my two key metrics for hiring engineers is judgment. The other is comity.) The bottom layer, from source code to binary, is what a compiler does. Compilers make lots of decisions! Inlining, register allocation, w

In early 2025, I wrote Is Claude a Compiler? At the time, my answer was: I don’t know. I’m now pretty sure the answer is “no, that’s a category error, it’s better than a compiler.” But this requires a bit of unpacking. Computer programs are notoriously intricate and finicky. A program operates at an extreme level of precision. There is no “wave hands” CPU instruction. High-level goals, meanwhile, are deeply underspecified. In a highly stylized view of the world, software gets built in layers, each one adding specification and hiding “unnecessary” detail. Vision becomes strategy, product…

saved by

related reading