Saturday, 10 October 2026

The New Software World

Many articles tell us how stressed software developers are by AI.
- I'm not!
- I'm all AI, all the time, and I'm never going back.
- I've been more productive this year than in any the 36 prior years I've been programming.
AI lets me work and think at a different level.
- I'm more of a product manager now. I can think in terms of realizing the things I imagine instead of going off into the weeds of implementation.
- The design/write/try/redesign/rewrite loop is much, much tighter. This was the promise of Visual Basic, and it's been realized now.
- The site you're looking at now is a good example.
Not everyone will get the same results with AI.
- I'm an expert software developer, so I tend to get expert results.
- A novice software developer will still get novice results, just more quickly.

You still need to be an expert at whatever field you're in to get expert results.
- You have to know what questions to ask.
- You have to be able to recognize a wrong answer when you see it.
Design is the key skill.
- Code was never easy, but it wasn't the sole limiting factor in producing good, usable software, either.
- Now, code is easier than ever, but it still isn't the limiting factor.
If I gave an interview for a software-development position today…
- I'd give the user a harness and a spec for an application.
- I'd see how close they got to the application's spec, and compare their results with other interviewees.
- It's almost a guarantee that the quality would vary wildly among applicants.
Writing software with AI is a skill.
- I've gotten better at it over time.
- Learning how to use your tools is still as important as it was before AI.
- Learning the skill of software design is now even more important.