It is time to think about writing more "f%^k you code," code that gives you real (not local, not time-limited) leverage, similar to "f%^k you money" - Part 1

"F%^k you money" is the idea of having enough financial cushion that you can walk away from bad deals, horrible bosses or a horrible workplace or misaligned work without fear because your (financial) survival isn't on the line and maybe your ego is, which is probably fine too or just as important if not more (been there, done that).

"F%^k you money" is not entirely about arrogance.

"F%^k you money" about optionality.

But the catch is that you have to have developed the skills and talent to walk away, otherwise, you are stuck in that orbit forever.

And in a world where AI is making code generation faster and cheaper, and will never really stop doing that, that same concept is starting to matter more in software engineering: if everyone can produce "pretty good code" on demand, then the real differentiator becomes the code that buys you leverage: the kind that creates independence from approvals, brittle and duct-taped processes, bad decisions and other people's timelines.

In other words, we need to start thinking about "f%^k you code" e.g. software that doesn't just exist, but changes what you're allowed to do.

(In short: because the code is just so good and so well thought-out).

The punchline is that lines of code don't really matter and especially now because volume (or volume generation) is the easiest thing for humans (and AI) to inflate and puff up.

Then the saying, "life is a numbers game," must only work when you're counting the right numbers: reliability, trust built, time saved, errors prevented, dollars and embarrassment avoided and decisions unblocked.

It turns out that Github stars stop mattering as much, so much so, that maybe, they never actually mattered.

The real flex isn't writing more code: it's writing the smallest amount that makes everything else easier. Moreover, the biggest flex is writing code that no one ever saw coming. That's so fun.

"F%^k you code" isn't amateur-level code built by amateurs (not backed by any money or insurance or patients awaiting clinical cancer decisions) because it's defined by durability under real-world (again, including clinical) constraints: correctness, observability, security, edge-cases and long-term maintenance, not just getting a demo to run to impress outdated IP lawyers who received their IP law degrees in the 90s.

It is (money-backed) professional-grade infrastructure that survives contact with production (and other people), compounding value, public and community interest and of course leverage over time instead of collapsing to unplanned obsolescence which then causes more embarrassment (well, now you can get public and community interest: any publicity is good publicity, right?).

"F%^k you code" is the software engineering version of "f%^k you money": it is not flashy code, but leverage (a very, very important word) absolutely encoded into software.

It's the quiet backbone that makes outcomes absolutely inevitable: an internal library every service imports, the pipeline that ships results nightly without drama (less drama please), the translation layer that turns messy real-world inputs into clean and trustworthy data or the optimization that makes a workflow 50× cheaper for investors and is therefore untouchable.

Unlike hero work, it doesn't beg for attention (because begging for attention is desperation and cringe – looks bad, but sometimes you can't look away while consuming your hard-earned-by-talent-and-skill-and-not-luck-because-I-do-not-believe-in-luck "f%^k you money" Erewhon soup at lunch time (again, been there, done that, love it)); it removes negotiation by making the organization depend on a stable, reusable piece of infrastructure that keeps things moving whether or not anyone is watching.

The goal isn't to become a single point of failure, it's to build systems so reliable, so foundational and so well-instrumented that they grant you autonomy: you stop asking for permission because you don't need to as the code written already made the decision in the organization with its magnificence.

Real (not amateur) "f%^k you skills and talent" generates real "f%^k you leverage" (code/money etc.)

(Part 1 of n)