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Traditional software engineering is changing rapidly. A mere few years ago you used to need domain knowledge and a fair bit of studying to do even basic tasks.
Fast forward to the present day with Cursor and PhD-level AI models, anyone can build any app that they think of, guiding the process through natural language like they would a professional developer.
While experienced software engineers will for a short while be at a much greater advantage wielding these tools (due to their ability to break down a problem into smaller, more easily solvable sub-problems as well as a general knowledge of the broad capabilities in software), I predict this advantage won’t last very long.
As we move higher up the abstraction ladder, and people have to peek less and less "under the hood" at actual code, libraries, and infrastructure, there will be a shift in software creation being limited to the "artisans" that have studied the craft, to being wide open to the broader population of anyone that can imagine anything useful.
This is going to empower so many people that have had good or even great ideas but never seriously considered building them because it’d be a hundred or thousand hour endeavor.
This allows people of any career or cultural background to become an app builder, as long as you have the actual drive to do it.
What’s fascinating to see is that, despite this rich well of software to dip your bowl into, it’s still limited to one’s imagination and determination. Many will see this infinite wellspring of code and ideas and simply turn around, uninterested. It’s already playing out today.
But for those who long to build things, it’s like being armed with the replicator from Star Trek, creating valuable apps and services seemingly out of thin air. Those with ambition and energy will turn the replicator loose on everything, not always with good intent, but to incredible ends.
In this new world, the most scarce resource will switch from technical expertise to imagination and willpower.