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In some number of cases, the business partner who would have passed you the requirements will just generate the code themselves.. I’m shocked shin some engineer

In some number of cases, the business partner who would have passed you the requirements will just generate the code themselves.. I’m shocked shin some engineers don’t see a massive disruption coming..

deleted 2mo ago
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claytongulick 2mo ago
Oh, some of us see a massive disruption coming, just maybe not in the way you think. Talented, experienced devs leaving the field out of disgust would be pretty disruptive. Crumbling, faulty technical infrastructure with unmanageable heaps of AI slop that no one understands would definitely disrupt businesses. Skill atrophy, and an entire generation of "developers" that have never actually written code will be disruptive when something breaks and no one knows how to fix it (this isn't a hypothetical, I'm seeing this phenomenon in a lot of large enterprise groups). The total elimination of novel solutions, new ideas and new approaches to development and the resulting industry wide stagnation won't be disruptive, but will certainly be a drag.
- decimalenough 2mo ago
  > Crumbling, faulty technical infrastructure with unmanageable heaps of AI slop that no one understands Replace "AI slop" with "legacy code", and you've got basically any large enterprise today. The timescales are different though: it takes years if not decades to accumulate classic legacy cruft, while LLMs can spew up huge amounts of incomprehensible spaghetti in seconds.
- griffiths 2mo ago
  You will have artisans or software SWAT teams on one side and code factories on the other. For most problems code factories will be good enough.
blharr 2mo ago
Sure, but why doesn't said business partner just give a requirement to the AI to do the business partner's own job? Since it is hypothetically superhuman at fulfilling requirements at such a point... PMs seem pretty easy to replace. In fact, given any single role to fixate on, it's probably replaceable
jurgenburgen 2mo ago
> In some number of cases, the business partner who would have passed you the requirements will just generate the code themselves.. I’m shocked shin some engineers don’t see a massive disruption coming.. It’s because you are engaging in first-order thinking. You imagine the immediate result which is that software engineers are replaced. If you engaged in second-order thinking you would realize that if software engineers can be replaced, _any_ work can eventually be automated. So why stress about it, we’ll figure out a replacement for capitalism. It seems like the world is starting the slow swing to the left so eventually the problem will be solved. Of course might be those engineers you mention are engaged in no thinking.
camdenreslink 2mo ago
Is this actually happening anywhere in a medium-large business with an established product and real customers?

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claytongulick 2mo ago

Oh, some of us see a massive disruption coming, just maybe not in the way you think. Talented, experienced devs leaving the field out of disgust would be pretty disruptive. Crumbling, faulty technical infrastructure with unmanageable heaps of AI slop that no one understands would definitely disrupt businesses. Skill atrophy, and an entire generation of "developers" that have never actually written code will be disruptive when something breaks and no one knows how to fix it (this isn't a hypothetical, I'm seeing this phenomenon in a lot of large enterprise groups). The total elimination of novel solutions, new ideas and new approaches to development and the resulting industry wide stagnation won't be disruptive, but will certainly be a drag.

decimalenough 2mo ago
> Crumbling, faulty technical infrastructure with unmanageable heaps of AI slop that no one understands Replace "AI slop" with "legacy code", and you've got basically any large enterprise today. The timescales are different though: it takes years if not decades to accumulate classic legacy cruft, while LLMs can spew up huge amounts of incomprehensible spaghetti in seconds.
griffiths 2mo ago
You will have artisans or software SWAT teams on one side and code factories on the other. For most problems code factories will be good enough.

blharr 2mo ago

Sure, but why doesn't said business partner just give a requirement to the AI to do the business partner's own job? Since it is hypothetically superhuman at fulfilling requirements at such a point... PMs seem pretty easy to replace. In fact, given any single role to fixate on, it's probably replaceable

jurgenburgen 2mo ago

> In some number of cases, the business partner who would have passed you the requirements will just generate the code themselves.. I’m shocked shin some engineers don’t see a massive disruption coming.. It’s because you are engaging in first-order thinking. You imagine the immediate result which is that software engineers are replaced. If you engaged in second-order thinking you would realize that if software engineers can be replaced, _any_ work can eventually be automated. So why stress about it, we’ll figure out a replacement for capitalism. It seems like the world is starting the slow swing to the left so eventually the problem will be solved. Of course might be those engineers you mention are engaged in no thinking.

camdenreslink 2mo ago

Is this actually happening anywhere in a medium-large business with an established product and real customers?