saved
the craft has been commoditized, but access has not
Hraness wrote this summary from a saved copy of the source. Quotations are taken word for word from the source.
gist
Geoffrey Huntley argues that AI finally makes the personal computer personal: anyone can express intent and get software outcomes, yet corporates still treat development as a named role. The craft is commoditized; access inside the firm is not. Agile assumed scarce human authorship around a select few. His 2026–2027 agenda is enabling everyone to contribute and ship; engineers who reject AI fail a curiosity test, and quality need not fall because LLMs already beat most hireable code. The engineer’s job is systems and safety controls that let everyone ship to production safely.
ideas
- Personal computing arrives via AI. For forty years only programmers could make a computer personal; intent-driven loops now let non-developers produce outcomes, including games.
- Craft is cheap; corporate access is not. Everyone can write software, but dogma still assigns that responsibility to a job function and withholds the loop from the rest of the org.
- Agile optimized the wrong scarcity. It treated human authorship as costly and scarce; that premise no longer holds when AI can author.
- Rejecting AI fails the curiosity test. Huntley says engineers who write only by hand and refuse tools earn tough career conversations within six months, while AI-native juniors undercut free-range organic nostalgia.
- Engineer systems that let everyone ship safely. Do not over-index on pre-AI hire quality; build safety controls so broad contribution does not drop production quality.
quotes
“The craft has been commoditized, but access to do the craft within corporate has not.”
“Everyone is now a software developer.”
“These LLMs generate better code than 99% of companies could hire for.”
“Our job as software engineers now is to engineer systems, including safety controls, that let everyone ship to production — safely.”