Freedom to Handcraft Software
6 points by kirch
6 points by kirch
This appeal without a theory of power is pointless. There are people benefiting from the destruction of skill and know-how in exchange for short-term gains, and there are people harmed by it. Without building power for the latter and eliminating the former, any appeal is performative.
Power misses the point.
We don't know how a junior will learn in the age of AI. We do know that a junior will have a worse time learning and may not ever truly grok software if they use AI from the beginning. We also know a person with LLM budgets can do more and faster.
In the age of AI, learning can be disconnected from the doing. This is a problem the entire world is facing, not just software. We're all in this one together.
CEOs and tech oligarchs are not in this together with us. They are in this against us.
I agree that the problem of truly grokking software has worsened with AI in the mix, but it was very much a problem before too - I graduated with a Computer Science degree with very little understanding of how computers work at a lower-level. Those who are curious will find their way around things with or without AI. It might be much harder to maintain the curiosity over time though.
I'd hazard the guess that most developers today don't actually think through their software decisions, nor do they think critically about the software they see, whether at work or not. This is a problem in every industry I can think of where I've got more than a passing familiarity with the practitioners.