Does Code Quality Still Matter? It Depends on This — Max Kanat-Alexander, Capital One
Code quality matters only insofar as it improves understanding and ability to act on that understanding
“Everything you want to achieve with software depends on two factors, and only two. It is understanding and putting that understanding into practice.”
Max Kanat-Alexander argues that code quality is not an end in itself but a means to two underlying goals: understanding what a system actually does, and being able to change it correctly and safely. He frames all quality tools—tests, observability, evaluations—as instruments serving these two purposes, not correctness per se. The talk is most relevant as a mental model for AI-era engineering where LLM-generated code raises new questions about maintainability and comprehension.