From Stonemasons to Carpenters
4 hours ago
- The author uses his grandfather's carpentry work building concrete bridges as an analogy for software development in the age of AI, where developers are shifting from being 'stonemasons' to 'carpenters'.
- Historically, software developers, like stonemasons, built systems line by line, but now with AI generating code, developers focus on building 'forms' (structure, tests, documentation, guardrails) that guide the generated code.
- This shift means every developer must think like a Product Manager, focusing on 'what should we build' rather than 'how to build it'.
- Software engineering is becoming more about system design and less about writing code, as the cost of code generation decreases, and the OODA loop shortens, allowing faster design-impact feedback.
- System design is moving from inside-out to outside-in, where external behavior defines the structure, similar to how carpenters shape forms for concrete.
- The analogy has limitations: concrete bridges are poured once, while software can be iterated on, applying lessons from previous versions.
- The author concludes that the role of software engineer is evolving to focus on building complete systems using engineering techniques, enabled by AI, rather than writing every line of code.