HN Explorer

The age of "Software Deslopers" is coming

1 points by shudv ↗ HN
Soon, the software industry is going to realise that all the code that was rapidly (and carelessly) generated in pursuit of "100x" productivity has become a liability and the AI that promised to free up everyone has become the core dependency, without which the system just cannot move forward.

At that point, we are going to need the "software deslopers" who are just the old software developers, the vibe-less coders, just with a new title that makes them employable once again :)

Still holding out hope!

7 comments

[ 1.7 ms ] story [ 12.5 ms ] thread
benoau
Mixed feelings about this, the thing about AI slop is there's an option B where you just throw it out because you're not committed to what it had produced and not having it is even better than spending big to have it be good.

I took on a contract recently to fix up an AI-generated SaaS, I was low-key impressed with the consistency and general quality and structure, but what was missing... uploading files, platform registrations and payouts, payments, booking management, notifications, administrative tools, refunds, proof-of-service and dispute resolution, they wanted a small-scale AirBnb-like service and AI had built them a UI showing mock listings and a skeleton API. Whole project ended up in the trash when they realized how much work was left.

shudv
You can throw away prototypes, sure. But can you just throw something out something that is supporting a critical workload? Not really.

Also what would be the plan after you throw out the AI slop? Rebuild it using AI? Why wouldn't that be slop as well that would have to be thrown out?

WheelsAtLarge
I'd like to say yes, but it's not likely. What will probably happen is that software development will change. New high-level development paradigms will appear where AI and humans will be able to develop software that's closer to putting together a puzzle than writing code line by line. Keep in mind, it's only been a few years since the current crop of AIs appeared. There's much more innovation coming.

All that 100x code will be thrown out rather than debugged. What's more likely to come is the age of disposable code.

shudv
I agree. It's hard to foresee exactly where this settles, if it settles.

My sentiment is more of a hope than a prediction. The way I see this is - even if AI gets stronger from here, assuming business continue to exist - what will they compete on exactly if all businesses have access to the same level of intelligence? It would again boil down to who is able to harness the power of AI better and that again would require understanding and controlling system complexity i.e. "desloping".

abstractspoon
Deslo_pp_ers
shudv
Done. I am going to spell it as "Desloppers" going forward. And if this term gets gains traction I am going to credit you as a contributor my friend :D