There are some interesting points here, but I think this essay is a little too choppy - e.g. the Aircraft Mechanic comparison is a long bow to draw. The Visual

There are some interesting points here, but I think this essay is a little too choppy - e.g. the Aircraft Mechanic comparison is a long bow to draw. The Visual Basic comparison is more salient. I've seen multiple rounds of "the end of programmers", including RAD tools, offshoring, various bubble-bursts, and now AI. Just because we've heard it before though, doesn't mean it's not true now. AI really is quite a transformative technology. But I do agree these tools have resulted in us having more software, and thus more software problems to manage. The Alignment/Drift points are also interesting, but I think that this appeals to SWE's belief that that taste/discernment is stopping this happening in pre-AI times. I buy into the meta-point which is that the engineering role has shifted. Opening the floodgates on code will just reveal bottlenecks elsewhere (especially as AI's ability in coding is three steps ahead and accelerating). Rebuilding that delivery pipeline is the engineering challenge.