No, no actually capable engineer should be just banging away at code. This is one way to know the level of an engineer.

Less capable engineers think in terms of implementing runtime execution and solving runtime errors.

More capable engineers think in terms of designing the most effective architecture and abstractions for maintainability, performance, and robustness.

I have a project I am working on, It has not compiled in months, but that's ok, since the real work, for me, is in the architectural design.

Yes, getting it to actually run takes some time and effort, but for me that is almost mechanical now.

Try to write a design doc before you implement something (which people find they need to do for LLMs to work at all anyway). You’ll find that you spend much less time actually writing code.

Write proper API documentation laying out the assumptions and intent, generate some good API docs, write a design and architecture document (which people find they need for LLMs to work at all anyway). You’ll find that you spend a lot less time reading code.

It has varied over the years but it isn't actually relevant since I am talking about when I write software.

Writing code just isn't what takes time.

I am not, yet actual coding is miniscule part of workflow. The rest is cca un-automable by any llm - politics, meetings, discussions, brainstorming, organizing testing teams, stakeholders and so on.

This is how big corporations look like, not some SV startups.