[HN Gopher] How to Automate Software Engineering
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How to Automate Software Engineering
Author : Tamaybes
Score : 14 points
Date : 2025-05-30 20:51 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.mechanize.work)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.mechanize.work)
| rvz wrote:
| Another thing to keep in mind is that it is also possible that
| many startups attempting to fully automate software engineering
| roles will die / bankrupt or shut down trying before it
| 'eventually' happens; whenever that is.
|
| builder.ai was the first casualty claiming to use AI to replace
| software engineering teams to build products. Now bankrupt. [0]
|
| It could cost a lot more money than initially estimated than
| other industries if (by their own admission) it is the last
| profession to be automated.
|
| Let's see in the next 10 years if some of these 'startups' are
| still around on this 'mission' and whether if software
| engineering will be fully automated and dead for humans in the
| next decade which that is the narrative that they are all hyping
| for more VC money.
|
| [0] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/builder-ais-
| shocking-450m-fal...
| sublinear wrote:
| This "problem" is pathological and those selling solutions are
| misleading those who buy into it.
|
| Software engineering often isn't just answering "how" to
| accomplish something, but also all the five other questions
| starting with 'w'. Software ate the world a very long time ago,
| so people being allergic to code while trying to run a business
| is only sounding more and more absurd as time marches on.
|
| What are we really trying to solve for here? All that could be
| automated reasonably well has been already. In most cases you _do
| not_ want a stochiastic result, but exact code to be reused. We
| use libraries in our code and we have reproducibility of results.
| The code that needs to be written for most applications is
| minimal and only grows large as the business refines what they
| want. This code is unique and virtually worthless to any other
| business. The code mirrors the organization. We already know all
| this for decades. It 's very confusing to me to keep hearing
| about this insistence that we need to automate software
| engineering.
| esseph wrote:
| Maximum movement of capital to as few individuals as possible
| sublinear wrote:
| That's totally achievable now and in the recent past. Write
| the code yourself? Several billionaires have done this.
| MangoToupe wrote:
| > Software ate the world a very long time ago, so people being
| allergic to code while trying to run a business is only
| sounding more and more absurd as time marches on.
|
| I don't agree with this at all. Part of the pitch of code is
| packing really nasty semantics into a single interface. This
| inherently reflects in the services we provide to clients. This
| interface should naturally correspond to UI, if that's what you
| offer. If you can only express the interface for your service
| in code, you've failed.
| ctoth wrote:
| > Once this occurs, many software engineers could perhaps
| transition into adjacent positions that rely on similar expertise
| but are significantly harder to automate, such as software
| engineering management, product management, or executive
| leadership within software companies.
|
| > In these roles, their responsibilities would shift from writing
| code and debugging to higher-level oversight, decision-making,
| and strategic planning--until these responsibilities can be
| automated too.
|
| When they spoke on Dwarkesh's podcast they seemed to think this
| would take 30 years. Not sure why we coders are so quick to be
| automated but the rest aren't.
|
| https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/ege-tamay
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