Across most engineering communities, the pursuit of clean, graceful, and meticulously written code is often regarded as the ultimate benchmark of professional excellence—the so‑called gold standard of software craftsmanship. Yet, according to Block’s chief technology officer, this long‑held belief may be somewhat misplaced and overly romanticized.
Dhanji Prasanna, who leads technology at the well‑known fintech company, recently offered a thought‑provoking perspective during an episode of ‘Lenny’s Podcast’ that aired on Sunday. Prasanna observed that many skilled engineers continue to assume that the overall quality or aesthetic elegance of code plays a decisive role in building a commercially successful product. However, he firmly argued that this assumption does not hold true in practice, suggesting instead that there is virtually no intrinsic connection between refined code and a thriving product. In his view, flawless syntax and design may please developers, but they do little to guarantee impact or market success.
Prasanna emphasized that a truly great product is born from its capacity to solve authentic problems faced by real users—not from its internal architectural purity. Perfection in programming style, he explained, might make engineers feel accomplished, yet it seldom translates into meaningful value for customers. What ultimately matters is whether the product delivers practical solutions that meet genuine needs.
Reflecting on his own career, Prasanna recounted a revealing episode from his tenure at Google. When the tech giant acquired YouTube in 2006, its software engineers were reportedly shocked by what they perceived as the poor condition of the video‑sharing platform’s codebase—the unconventional structures, lack of sophistication in design, and numerous violations of what Google considered best practices. Despite these technical shortcomings, YouTube went on to vastly outshine Google’s own competing service, Google Video, ultimately evolving into one of the company’s most successful and influential products ever developed.
From this experience, Prasanna drew a profound lesson: the greatness of a product depends far less on how elegantly it is engineered than on how effectively it fulfills its purpose. He put it succinctly—architecture and elegance in code are secondary to whether a product truly meets user demands and addresses substantial human needs. Only by focusing on the ultimate goal of what is being built—and the people for whom it is being built—can meaningful innovation emerge. As he noted, code can always be rewritten, refactored, or discarded tomorrow, but the insight that connects product and user endures.
Prasanna extended his viewpoint beyond coding philosophy to the broader technological landscape. He noted that companies and engineers do not need to constantly chase every new technological wave or emerging trend. Instead, technology itself should remain a servant to human purpose, not a master to be obeyed. If an organization possesses a compelling mission and a well‑defined reason for being, he argued, then it can and should ensure that technology aligns with and amplifies that mission, rather than dictating it.
When contacted by Business Insider for further comment, Prasanna declined to provide additional statements.
His remarks arrive amid an ongoing industry debate about the evolving importance of coding in the age of artificial intelligence. Many tech leaders continue to highlight programming literacy as an essential skill for the future workforce. For instance, Yossi Matias, Google’s head of research, told Business Insider last year that every individual should learn at least the fundamentals of coding, asserting that such foundational understanding has become even more crucial as AI grows in prominence. Similarly, Jay Graber, CEO of the decentralized social network Bluesky, emphasized in a July interview that a deep comprehension of coding practices remains indispensable. According to Graber, those who lack an understanding of what qualifies as well‑structured code or how functional systems are built will struggle to assess the quality of AI‑generated output effectively.
However, not all industry voices align with this conviction. Professionals like Prasanna challenge the notion that technical mastery in coding is still paramount. Peter Schwartz, Salesforce’s chief futures officer, recently expressed a parallel sentiment when he told Business Insider that in the modern AI‑driven era, coding itself has ceased to be the defining skill that guarantees success. Instead, he argued, interpersonal abilities—particularly empathy and collaboration—have become far more central to thriving in technology and business alike.
As coding automation advances, product leaders have begun to speculate about the potential consequences: artificial intelligence may increasingly assume a significant share of programming responsibilities, diminishing the necessity for large teams of traditional software engineers. During Google’s third‑quarter earnings call last year, CEO Sundar Pichai revealed that AI systems had already generated more than one‑quarter of the company’s newly written code, a figure that illustrates how rapidly this transformation is unfolding.
In essence, Prasanna’s reflections serve as both a critique of conventional engineering dogma and a call to redefine what technical excellence truly means in the digital age. Rather than worshipping the beauty of clean code, he argues, innovators should value clarity of purpose, user empathy, and problem‑solving above all else—because in the end, it is not perfection in logic that builds enduring products, but the power to make meaningful human impact.
Sourse: https://www.businessinsider.com/block-cto-code-quality-sucess-solving-problems-dhanji-prasanna-2025-10
