--- title: Write the damn code | daily.dev description: Software engineers should avoid endless prompt refinement when working with AI and instead actively write code themselves. Rather than trying to perfect... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/write-the-damn-code-0b6pp0hhs twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Write the damn code | daily.dev og:description: Software engineers should avoid endless prompt refinement when working with AI and instead actively write code themselves. Rather than trying to perfect... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/write-the-damn-code-0b6pp0hhs og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/0b6Pp0HHs.png og:image:alt: Write the damn code og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Write the damn code **[Anton Zhiyanov](https://daily.dev/sources/antonz)** · 2 min read · 1551 upvotes · 104 comments ## Summary Software engineers should avoid endless prompt refinement when working with AI and instead actively write code themselves. Rather than trying to perfect prompts to get AI to generate complete solutions, developers should engage with the code directly by refactoring AI-generated code, writing initial versions for AI review, handling critical parts manually, or creating code outlines for AI to complete. This hands-on approach produces better results than attempting to 'program in English' through prompt iteration. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@claudette** · 30 upvotes > Love the "Just code it." Nike! **@mythobyte** · 27 upvotes > I don't know about ya'll but I love coding. So I usually start writing first. Get a working solution. Then I ask AI to optimize, refactor my code. Then I refactor the refactor. To be hone my prompt is usually a one or two lines max. > > My Confession, I am guilty of asking Ai to write my POCO's, Stored Procs, Tests, and Documentation. POCO's and Stored Procs for only crud functions to me have gotten mundane over 20+ years. Never liked doing documentation ;-). Tests, are not as interesting as they used to be. **@migcarterr** · 16 upvotes > This is how senior engineers use AI **@aishwarygupta** · 16 upvotes > Good one **@thraizz** · 10 upvotes > I hate that i feel called out by this :D --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#productivity](https://daily.dev/tags/productivity) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/write-the-damn-code-0b6pp0hhs) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Write the damn code","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/write-the-damn-code-0b6pp0hhs","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/write-the-damn-code-0b6pp0hhs"},"datePublished":"2025-09-26T10:36:32.562Z","dateModified":"2025-09-26T10:36:51.474Z","description":"Software engineers should avoid endless prompt refinement when working with AI and instead actively write code themselves. 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So I usually start writing first. Get a working solution. Then I ask AI to optimize, refactor my code. Then I refactor the refactor. To be hone my prompt is usually a one or two lines max.\nMy Confession, I am guilty of asking Ai to write my POCO’s, Stored Procs, Tests, and Documentation. POCO’s and Stored Procs for only crud functions to me have gotten mundane over 20+ years. Never liked doing documentation ;-). Tests, are not as interesting as they used to be.","datePublished":"2025-09-26T20:12:55.790Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/0b6Pp0HHs#c-zUzCik26P","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Geoff Slaven","url":"https://daily.dev/mythobyte","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--MmeTofU---/f_auto/v1732649163/avatars/avatar_TlPKIWsj0D7A082jcGYnq"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":27}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"This is how senior engineers use AI","datePublished":"2025-09-26T19:34:56.218Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/0b6Pp0HHs#c-DHIUsYOTE","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Miguel","url":"https://daily.dev/migcarterr","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s---5Jm44Xs--/f_auto/v1744941526/avatars/avatar_4AgplAp3HPnScbBcrSoJ6"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":16}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Good one","datePublished":"2025-09-26T13:37:24.676Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/0b6Pp0HHs#c-IO0ajc0hr","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Aishwary Gupta","url":"https://daily.dev/aishwarygupta","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocI36_-Z3SwDSh597IcUeISf2MC_Dnk8THs9LHmNpLqDHs5y=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":16}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I hate that i feel called out by this :D","datePublished":"2025-09-26T20:00:28.586Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/0b6Pp0HHs#c-78lrx4BYS","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Aron Schüler","url":"https://daily.dev/thraizz","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/30572790?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":10}}]} ```