You're completely right and I wish I had in retrospect... I was honestly just talking mostly in broad terms, but people really (maybe rightly) focused on the "not reading code" snippet.
I'm mostly developing my own apps and working with startups.
It's nano banana - I actually noticed the same thing. I didn't prompt it as such.
Here's the prompt I used, actually:
Create a vibrant, visually dynamic horizontal infographic showing the spectrum of AI developer tools, titled "The Shift Left"
Layout: 5 distinct zones flowing RIGHT TO LEFT as a journey/progression. Use creative visual metaphors — perhaps a road, river, pipeline, or abstract flowing shapes connecting the stages. Each zone should feel like its own world but connected to the others.
2. "Multi-Agent Orchestration" - Claude Code logo, Codex CLI logo, Codex App logo, Conductor logo
Label: "Parallel agents, fire & forget"
3. "Agentic IDE" - Cursor logo, Windsurf logo
Label: "Autonomous multi-file edits"
4. "Code + AI" - GitHub Copilot logo
Label: "Inline suggestions"
5. "Code" (rightmost) - VS Code logo
Label: "Read & write files"
Visual style: Fun, energetic, modern. Think illustrated tech landscape or isometric world. NOT a boring corporate chart. Use warm off-white background (#faf8f5) with amber/orange (#b45309) as the primary accent color throughout. Add visual flair — icons, small illustrations, depth, texture, but don't make it visually overloaded.
I'm glad you wrote this comment because I completely agree with it. I don't think that there is not a need for software engineers to deeply consider architecture; who can fully understand the truly critical systems that exist at most software companies; who can help dream up the harness capabilities to make these agents work better.
I just am describing what I'm doing now, and what I'm seeing at the leading edge of using these tools. It's a different approach - but I think it'll become the most common way of producing software.
My overall stance on this is that it's better to lean into the models & the tools around them improving. Even in the last 3-4 months, the tools have come an incredible distance.
I bet some AI-generated code will need to be thrown away. But that's true of all code. The real questions to me are - are the velocity gains be worth it? Will the models be so much better in a year that they can fix those problems themselves, or re-write it?
When I talk with people in the space, go to meetups, present my work & toolset, I am usually one of the more advanced, but usually not THE most, people in the conversation / group. I'm not saying I'm some sort of genius, I'm just saying I'm relatively near the leading edge of how to use these tools. I feel like it's true.
I'm not trying to express that my particular flavor of career is safe. I think that the ability to produce software is much less about the ability to hand-write code, and that's going to continue as the models and ecosystem improve, and I'm fascinated by where that goes.
Is the image really not that clear? There are IDE-like tools that all are focusing on different parts of the Spec --> Agent --> Code continuum. I think it illustrates that all right.
I completely agree in a sense - the cost of producing software is plummeting, and it's leading to me being able to develop things that I would never have invested months in before.
But sure, go with the ad hominem.
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