Quoting Laurie Voss
Laurie Voss argues AI collapses code-writing and review costs, leaving product discovery and precise definition as the core of software engineering.
Simon Willison quotes Laurie Voss's essay "We are all Product Engineers now," which argues that AI is collapsing the cost of writing code and will likewise collapse the cost of reviewing, fixing, and operating it. Voss contends the remaining work is finding out what people want, defining it precisely, and making software pleasant to use. He expects the amount of software to grow without limit because demand has no ceiling, making product-definition skills the whole job. No specific models, tools, or incidents are named; this is career and industry commentary.
- AI drives costs of writing, reviewing, and operating code toward zero
- Remaining engineering value shifts to product discovery and precise specification
- Uncapped software demand means product skills become the dominant part of the job
From the original article
The cost of writing code collapsed, and the cost of reviewing, fixing and operating it is following, and I'm assuming it gets there. What's left of making software is finding out what people actually want, defining it precisely, and making it pleasant to use.
simonwillison.net
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