We are all product engineers now
4 hours ago
- The cost of writing software has collapsed due to AI, shifting the bottleneck from coding to problem definition.
- Agents are expected to soon handle coding, reviewing, maintaining, shipping, and scaling software, leaving humans to decide what to build, define quality, and ensure delight.
- Junior programmer roles are disappearing as agents handle specified coding tasks, breaking the traditional path for seniors to develop judgment.
- The demand for software is effectively infinite because most existing software is poor and many needs remain unaddressed.
- The remaining high-value job is 'product engineering'—understanding customer needs, defining requirements, and iterating—currently hired under titles like 'forward deployed engineer' with senior engineer pay.
- The training pipeline for this new role is inadequate; formal programs like Google's APM produce only a few hundred graduates yearly, while junior developer pipelines have collapsed.
- The craft of coding as paid work is mostly dying, a real loss for those who loved it, though the core skill of problem-shaping will remain in demand.
- The next decade will be turbulent as the load shifts before training and tools are ready, but the industry will likely be larger and centered on product engineering, not typing code.