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Why Engineering Leads Should Never Write Code, According to One Developer

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Software engineer Anton, who works primarily with PHP/Symfony and Go, argues that a technical lead's role should be strictly limited to preparing task facts, handing over work, and accepting results — never writing code directly. His workflow caps concurrent executors at three: two on main work and one on fixes, deliberately avoiding fan-out to prevent file conflicts and limit bottlenecks. According to Anton, the moment a lead starts coding, the critical fact-preparation step breaks down, making subsequent task batches more costly than any time saved. Each task must be handed to an executor as a complete, self-contained message requiring no further reading or clarification. After a set of tasks closes, a structured audit maps every original requirement to what was done and what proof exists, flagging any logic added outside the original statement.

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