Code is, I think, rapidly becoming a commodity. It used to be that the code itself was what was valuable (Microsoft MS-DOS vs. the IBM PC hardware). And it has stayed that way for a long time.

FOSS meant that the cost of building on reusable components was nearly zero. Large public clouds meant the cost of running code was negligible. And now the model providers (Anthropic, Google, OpenAI) means that the cost of producing the code is relatively small. When the marginal cost of producing code approaches zero, we start optimizing for all the things around it. Code is now like steel. It's somewhat valuable by itself, but we don't need the town blacksmith to make us things anymore.

What is still valuable is the intuition to know what to build, and when to build it. That's the je ne sais quoi still left in our profession.

From https://annievella.com/posts/finding-comfort-in-the-uncertai...

“Ideas that surfaced: code as ‘just another projection’ of intended behaviour. Tests as an alternative projection. Domain models as the thing that endures. One group posed the provocative question: what would have to be true for us to ‘check English into the repository’ instead of code?

The implications are significant. If code is disposable and regenerable, then what we review, what we version-control, and what we protect all need rethinking.”

> What is still valuable is the intuition to know what to build, and when to build it. That's the je ne sais quoi still left in our profession.

Absolutely. Also crucial is what's possible to build. That takes a great deal of knowledge and experience, and is something that changes all the time.

yes, agreed that coding (implementation), which was once extremely expensive for businesses, is trending towards a negligible price. Planning, coordination, strategy at a high level are as challenging as ever. I'm getting more done than ever, but NOT working less hours in a day (as an employee at a product company).

Like column inches in a newspaper. But some news is important and that's the editor's job to decide.

I’d say the jury might be out on whether code is worthless for giant pieces of infrastructure (Linux kernel). There, small problems create outsized issues for everybody, so the incentive is to be conservative and focused on quality.

Second there’s a world of difference still between a developer with taste using AI with care and the slop cannons out there churning out garbage for others to suffer through. I’m betting there is value in the former in the long run.