I guess I'm old, and there's a lot of grey in my beard but... whatever happened to just, you know, writing code?

Simple code. Nothing clever, just logic and clear expression of what needs to be done.

It's so pleasant to just write code that does things.

Code that you can put a breakpoint on to debug.

Code that doesn't go through a library abstraction, a framework, a philosophy, three AI agents, a complex type system, metaprogramming and a cross compiler to run.

I understand that maintainable code needs organization, but I think we go off the rails when the systems of organization dominate the work, and the actual execution logic seems secondary.

I see so many teams spend endless cycles debating theories of frameworks, fp vs oop, type systems, AI rigs, etc..., and barely any time at all on solving the actual problem.