Code as Doc: Automate by Vercel AI SDK and ZenStack for Free
If you have ever worked as a developer in a large company, you know that coding is just one small part of the daily responsibilities. One of Google's full-stack software engineers, Ray Farias, once estimated that developers write about 100-150 lines of code per day at Google. While this estimate may vary across different teams, the order of magnitude matches my observations as a developer at Microsoft.
So where does the time go? A significant portion goes to activities like meetings, code reviews, planning sessions, and documentation tasks. Among all these tasks, documentation is my least favorite—and I suspect many other teammates feel the same way.
The main reason is that we didn't see much value in it. We were required to write design documents at the start of each sprint before coding, and after reviewing them with each other, most would remain unchanged forever. I can't count how many times I found something strange in a document only to have its author tell me it was outdated. 😂 Why don't we update the docs? Because our boss considers it less important than fixing bugs or adding new features.
Documentation should serve as a high-level abstraction of code to aid understanding. When documentation falls out of sync with the code, it loses its purpose. However, keeping doc synchronized with code requires effort—something few people actually enjoy.
