I’ve been writing a lot about AI. I’ve gotten some interesting responses, ranging from…
THANK YOU! I feel seen!
To…
You’re completely fucking wrong you dinosaur.
The most interesting responses continue to come from people who literally hate writing code. Mostly because I’m surprised they read my stuff at all, to be honest!
One of those conversations was with someone who self-identified as “an entrepreneur.”
As they describe it, AI let’s them churn out their ideas in large numbers without having to actually write any code. To them, “code is boring,” and the interesting part is what you can do with it.
I get that perspective to an extent. I also think the fashion industry provides a really good analogy here.
Imagine you’ve designed a pair of sneakers.
You could manufacture them by hand, or you could mass manufacture them. You could use high-quality materials that take time to source and vet, or you could use the cheapest shit that you can find.
This is a spectrum. You can mass manufacture with quality materials and a robust QA process. You can hand-make shit with terrible materials.
AI code is mass-produced shit made from cheap material. It’s the Payless Shoes or Uniqlo of web dev. Its fast fashion.
You’re an entrepreneur.
The the thing that makes your app desirable the surface-level “how it looks” shit that anyone can copy? Or it how it works? The user experience?
Web development is a craft. It’s also industry.
My focus is entirely on well-crafted, quality products. I have no interest in disposable garbage, and I’m skeptical of folks who do.
I know in my heart that in a capitalist society, the garbage will always exist. It’s not going anywhere.
But I certainly am under no obligation to pretend it’s good, or just lay down and accept its inevitability as something worth embracing.
I will continue to focus on the craft.
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