The Industrialization of IT
benn.substack.com
The Industrialization of IT
1–10 of 53 posts
Re: The Industrialization of IT
#2How much are people paying per month per user for coding AI services?
Re: The Industrialization of IT
#3You get something right, something awfully wrong. It's true that machines dont sleep, but less true that every software engineer costs 230000$ an year. Maybe (!) that's true in Silicon Valley. In Italy, it costs 35000E.
And we don't see many software companies in Italy. Why? Because I'm sad to have that explained, code is 10% of development. Whatsapp was sold for 17 billion dollars and it was 55 employees, and it's an IRC chat made mobile. At the time, it didn't have video.
I can keep going on, but this discussion sounds so out-in-space that only USA people could not see. Sorry if you're from somewhere else.
Re: The Industrialization of IT
#4Tangential, but an entry level developer at 190k USD per year seems nuts, is that really a reasonable number? From a quick search, I find numbers below 100k USD for the bay area, which seems more reasonable.
In a well off European country, you'd pay around 45k USD for a strong entry level developer. I can imagine 2x salaries, considering costs of living, fire at will and all that, but >4x? Not sure how to back that up.
Re: The Industrialization of IT
#5Also, calculators did millions of operations, but the were 99.999999% right all the time. That's what set the apart from human people: eternal reliability 24/7. AI is about right 1% of the time, a human is needed to recognise when the machine is wrong, and it keeps repeating the same mistakes when identified and corrected. People WISH it was like a calculator, but you know, magic thinking doesn't make things happen.
Re: The Industrialization of IT
#6I guess that your takes on parallel, compartimentalized, self healing, game-theory based micro AI agents could be spawned and organized code their own way. But... wake me up when it happens, ok? ;)
Re: The Industrialization of IT
#7Tangential, but an entry level developer at 190k USD per year seems nuts, is that really a reasonable number? From a quick search, I find numbers below 100k USD for the bay area, which seems more reasonable. In a well off European country, you'd pay around 45k USD for a strong entry level developer. I can imagine 2x salaries, considering costs of living, fire at will and all that, but >4x? Not sure how to back that u…
Totally agree, and USA hasnt delocalized that, so if cost was the problem, or code production... why?
Re: The Industrialization of IT
#8Clear and concise thinking, its the first time I have read someone cut through the hype and argue logically for what the next incremental steps are in making progress down this path of LLMs creating technology.
The first steam engines were too expensive and underpowered, the first cars were deatch traps when they actually ran. Dont lul yourself into the dream of a static world.
We see the wave coming, I will look for a way to surf it. Don't be the stunned sceptic waiting to feel the crush.
Re: The Industrialization of IT
#9You get something right, something awfully wrong. It's true that machines dont sleep, but less true that every software engineer costs 230000$ an year. Maybe (!) that's true in Silicon Valley. In Italy, it costs 35000E. And we don't see many software companies in Italy. Why? Because I'm sad to have that explained, code is 10% of development. Whatsapp was sold for 17 billion dollars and it was 55 employees, and it's a…
USA is the worldwide exception when it comes to SW industry, not the rule.
The US tech industry is reaping the benefits of being the WW2 and cold war victor, the first to the punch in SW development and online capitalization, a homogenous single language market with the top economy in the world and owning the world reserve currency, meaning they can print and throw ungodly sums of money at any app that helps with mass data collection, data which is more valuable to advertisers because the US consumer has the highest purchasing power in the world by a long margin, and subject to less linguistical, financial and legal fragmentation and gov oversight than the EU.
It's a positive reinforcing feedback loop where more money helps creates even more money, like a snowball rolling downhill. It's not something Italy or any EU as a whole can replicate. We can replicate the same SW tech/concepts here, but not the scale and monetary effects that the same tech has in the hands of the US. US is basically playing the game with the infinite money glitch, and the crazy US salaries are a second order effect of that.
Re: The Industrialization of IT
#10Clear and concise thinking, its the first time I have read someone cut through the hype and argue logically for what the next incremental steps are in making progress down this path of LLMs creating technology. The first steam engines were too expensive and underpowered, the first cars were deatch traps when they actually ran. Dont lul yourself into the dream of a static world. We see the wave coming, I will look for…
> We see the wave coming, I will look for a way to surf it. Don't be the stunned sceptic waiting to feel the crush
What would you do to surf it? What would you suggest to who's an engineer right now?