GoKawiilMy grandfather spent his career building bridges, overpasses and box culverts up and down the central coast of California. Despite these being concrete structures, his occupation was that of carpenter. The reason he was a carpenter is because they would build large wooden structures, which would then create a form (essentially a mold for the concrete to be poured into). This is something that I keep returning to when considering how the software industry is changing because of AI, and specifically the ability to generate source code.
Historically, bridges were built by stonemasons. They would directly manipulate the material (stone) as the bridge was being built, and as they put more stones in place, the bridge would incrementally grow till it achieved its final form. Famously, the Romans would not even need to use mortar in their construction.
However, the current construction techniques are quite different. Currently, most bridges are built out of concrete. When my grandfather built these structures, he and his crew were not stonemasons, nor did they incrementally build the bridges piece by piece. Instead, they were considered carpenters, and spent the majority of their time building the wooden forms so that the concrete could be poured to make the final bridge. This is a significant change from how stonemasons built bridges.
So how does this analogy apply to coding in the age of AI? I propose that software development is moving from an age of stonemasons, to that of carpenters. Historically, software developers were more like stonemasons, working directly with the medium (code vs stone) and incrementally building systems one stone (Line of Code) at a time. However, due to the emergence of AI code generation, I propose that developers should see themselves more as bridge-building carpenters. Instead of building the system up incrementally, they are building the forms (adding structure to the system via tests, documentation, guardrails) that allow the code to then be generated correctly. This requires a shift in how software is developed, and I believe has significant implications.
Implications for development
Everyone is a Product Manager now
Historically, there has often been a sense that development was “real” work, and that project management was somehow less technical/valid. However, now that every developer is forced to focus on the boundaries/interfaces of the software they are building, and not just think about the internals, essentially every developer is being asked to become a Product Manager. Instead of the most important question being “how to build this”, or “can we build this”, now the most important question is “what should we build”. Having to think in this way will be a big shift for many developers.
Software Engineers doing more Software Engineering
One definition of Software Engineering is
“Software engineering is the branch of computer science that creates practical, cost-effective solutions to computing and information processing problems, preferentially by applying scientific knowledge, developing software systems in the service of mankind.”
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