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Software Eats Software Development as Andreessen Invests $10M in App Outsourcer

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Re: Software Eats Software Development as Andreessen Invests $10M in App Outsourcer

#51

Post by dagw »

codeshaman wrote: post #8

I'm afraid this is a glimpse into the not so distant future where software developers are next in line after taxi and truck drivers - uncertain if their skills will be required in a decade from now. That is compound by the millions of youngsters who grew up with computers, have unlimited access to unlimited teaching materials and are entering the workforce each year.. The demand for software may be growing (although…

I'm afraid this is a glimpse into the not so distant future where software developers are next in line after taxi and truck drivers

As a reasonably experienced developer I am 100% convinced that I can manage an outsourced software project and get more value out of a freelancer than someone who isn't a developer.

Re: Software Eats Software Development as Andreessen Invests $10M in App Outsourcer

#52

Post by mattmanser »

thewarrior wrote: post #19

Gigster + https://stamplay.com/ (Drag and Drop backends) + A front end automator is going to lead to the commoditization of the software developer.

We've done this before, RAD tools in the early 2000s and then a few years after that it was workflows.

It doesn't work.

One of the skills of being a programmer is to change a business workflow, which are often very vague and even very inefficient and open to interpretation, into a logical workflow.

Business people just don't have that skill, so what happens is that you need a bunch of programmers to operate the RAD tools. But the RAD tools have a bunch of restrictions and quirks and don't quite do what is wanted so the programmer is asked if he can just tweak it a bit.

And soon those little 'tweaks' are taking longer than building the whole thing from scratch.

Re: Software Eats Software Development as Andreessen Invests $10M in App Outsourcer

#53

Post by seivan »

marcosdumay wrote: post #46
kyllo wrote: post #27

Send Gigster your app idea and it sends you back that app. So you don't have to talk to developers and they know exactly what you want from your written description of your idea? What could possibly go wrong?

It also farms the code around a bunch of non-communicating developers. No, problems on the horizon, keep running towards that iceberg.

Or it could use a really good developer who also can design - on a contract basis. Several iOS developers can do that well enough to ship an MvP. Even more can also spin up a backend with an admin interface on Heroku in no time. Even without any background jobs. I think you guys my underestimate the concept here.

I am just mad I didn't come up with it first :-/

The developer doesn't need to manage invoice, other peoples schedules and any questions. That's taken care of by the service in question.

Specific ideas in. App Out.

This would be great for a developer who wants to get an outlet for creative (design) ideas as well.

Re: Software Eats Software Development as Andreessen Invests $10M in App Outsourcer

#54

Post by ssharp »

onewaystreet wrote: post #32

The real problems with this idea (which isn't new) come after a project has been delivered: It looks nice but you find a bug. What now? What's the turnaround time for getting that bug fixed? What's the cost? What about adding new features? What about scaling? And if you ever want to hire your own developers they have to learn a codebase that you yourself don't even understand.

I'd look at this as outsourcing your MVP. Come up with an idea, have it built, and then you figure out how to market it. If you get product/market fit, you can invest in building a technical team.

Re: Software Eats Software Development as Andreessen Invests $10M in App Outsourcer

#55

Post by gizzlon »

sharemywin wrote: post #20
raverbashing wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

99% of apps is data entry + usable interface + communication with a rest interface (meaning, there isn't a lot of 'intelligence' within) Seems very replicable

especially when you use MIT graduates to do the actual work. lol...

What MIT grad want's this job..? My guess is that they exaggerate this quite a bit. The xyz graduates are probably the founders :)

Re: Software Eats Software Development as Andreessen Invests $10M in App Outsourcer

#57

Post by tatx »

They mention that the “the client base moved to enterprise” and I think that, if Gigster is ever reasonably successful, it will end up as a shop making niche products for enterprises who find it difficult to fit such development activities into their budgets and schedules. They will then be directly competing with consultants who today do not provide an 'end-to-end' solution, so to say, to the development problems plaguing these enterprise companies.

But it is mighty difficult to do this kind of niche work because developers will then have to spend an inordinate amount of time acquiring relevant domain knowledge to implement these niche solutions. Hard earned knowledge that will be useless after the project is complete. And the effort of acquiring this domain knowledge will often be under-appreciated and underpaid, cause it is very very difficult to estimate this effort no matter how good an AI have you.

Re: Software Eats Software Development as Andreessen Invests $10M in App Outsourcer

#58

Post by ssharp »

aidos wrote: post #22
jacquesm wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm afraid this is a glimpse into the not so distant future. And that puts software developers next in line after taxi and truck drivers - uncertain if their skills will be required in a decade from now. I'm fairly sure that programmers will be employable for the foreseeable future but in a way this is fair play, we - the programmers - did this to an immense number of people it would seem that we ourselves should n…

More automation more of the time! The world needs to focus on how we collectively become more efficient while working less / relaxing more. Having said that, I think automation of software development has a long way to go before it's particularly effective. Though it's certainly going to be an interesting space to watch. It's somehow weird to imagine a future in which we disrupt ourselves.

> The world needs to focus on how we collectively become more efficient while working less / relaxing more.

The world doesn't reward working less. More automation might lead to lower average work hours, but the reduction comes from people losing their jobs and not finding new ones.

So, yes, you get to work less, but you almost might go bankrupt, lose your house and car, and be reliant on government welfare, if you're "lucky" enough to live in country with a decent safety net.

Re: Software Eats Software Development as Andreessen Invests $10M in App Outsourcer

#59

Post by lojack »

uptownfunk wrote: post #21

From a pure economic division-of-labor standpoint it makes sense. However I thought the modern business approach was to move away from strictly defined boxes of job roles and have everyone involved with everything (with some fuzzy focus on a particular role). With the hope that some cross pollination of ideas results in some synergistic result where the sum is greater than the individual parts. However the upshot of…

> What we need now is a simple program that takes normal human text and outputs a program. Input "write me a program that adds the numbers 1 to 100" and you would get a program that did that.

The problem is normal human text is ambiguous and flawed. Case in point:

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=write+me+a+program+that...

Correct, but probably not quite what you intended.

Re: Software Eats Software Development as Andreessen Invests $10M in App Outsourcer

#60

Post by Agathos »

benburton wrote: post #10
alphadevx wrote: post #7

“project management is the place where the most human error happens.” Note sure about that. I mean PM's don't write bugs, right?

When their requests lack clarity and specificity, they definitely do.

And sometimes the requirements are clear, specific, and wrong.
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