The recurring dream of replacing developers

Post by red75prime » Sun, Jan 18, 2026, 5:05 AM UTC

eks391 wrote: post #179

azan_ wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The pattern that gets missed in these discussions: every "no-code will replace developers" wave actually creates more developer jobs, not fewer. Doesn't mean it will happen this time (i.e. if AI truly becomes what was promised) and actually it's not likely it will!

I felt like the article had a good argument for why the AI hype will similarly be unsuccessful at erasing developers. > AI changes how developers work rather than eliminating the need for their judgment. The complexity remains. Someone must understand the business problem, evaluate whether the generated code solves it correctly, consider security implications, ensure it integrates properly with existing systems, and…

Post by shimman » Sun, Jan 18, 2026, 5:07 AM UTC

satvikpendem wrote: post #237

psychoslave wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The pattern repeats because the market incentivizes it. Market is not universal gravity, it's just a storefront for social policy. No political order, no market, no market incentives.

Markets always exists as long as people want to exchange one thing for another, by definition.

Post by kvirani » Sun, Jan 18, 2026, 5:17 AM UTC

davnicwil wrote: post #251

In the end, I think the dream underneath this dream is about being able to manifest things into reality without having to get into the details. The details are what stops it from working in every form it's been tried. You cannot escape the details. You must engage with them and solve them directly, meticulously. It's messy, it's extremely complicated and it's just plain hard. There is no level of abstraction that sav…

Post by galaxyLogic » Sun, Jan 18, 2026, 5:20 AM UTC

1718627440 wrote: post #189

enos_feedler wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course that is true. The nuance here is that software isn’t just getting cheaper but the activity to build it is changing. Instead of writing lines of code you are writing requirements. That shifts who can do the job. The customer might be able to do it themselves. This removes a market, not grows one. I am not saying the market will collapse just be careful applying a blunt theory to such a profound technological…

> Instead of writing lines of code you are writing requirements. https://www.commitstrip.com/en/2016/08/25/a-very-comprehensi...

Post by ej88 » Sun, Jan 18, 2026, 5:23 AM UTC

hintymad wrote: post #244

zby wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classic Jevons Paradox - when something gets cheaper the market for it grows. The unit cost shrinks but the number of units bought grows more than this shrinkage.

Jevon's Paradox does not last forever in a single sector, right? Take manufacturing business for example. We can make more and more stuff with increasingly lower price, yet we ended up outsourcing our manufacturing and the entire sector withered. Manufacturing also gets less lucrative over the years, which means there has been less and less demand of labor.