Unlimited coding bandwidth

I have not used a new application or SaaS for years. That’s it. Everybody is constantly yapping about how AI will allow for unforeseen productivity, and unlock a new era of prosperity for mankind (or at least the top 1%). Yet, I didn’t feel compelled to sign-up to a single new service for a very long time.

Is it the perspective of adding even more data to the inevitable data leak queue? When I started programming someone told me: "There are two categories of websites: the ones that have been hacked, and the one that will be." I’m always reluctant to join the next slop-induced breach, but the fact that I probably don’t need any new tool on my belt also weights heavily on the scale.

I would go even further: the apps I was already using didn’t become all of a sudden better. I don’t care about a single new feature shipped recently. Instagram shipped "Instants" which are just basically pictures, but with rounded corners this time. It’s supposed to be ephemeral, but isn’t it what stories already are? Maybe Instagram is a bad example, but it sets the global vibe.

With the bold claims made by AI companies, I would have thought that by now, I will be drowning under extremely sleek, well thought apps that solve all my problems. But apparently my problems are a limited currency. And they would have to be extremely painful in order for me to trade my privacy in order to solve them.

Around a bit before 2010, when Facebook and the iPhone were released, a huge paradigm shift occurred in the world of buying things. Before that, things served you. Now they merely are an undisguised way of stealing data from you. The mental cost of clicking "sign in" has raised significantly for me.

So here we are with unlimited coding bandwidth, and a problem scarcity mixed with trust that has never been so low. And instead of trying to reclaim the long lost confidence in consumption market, companies ship more and more software that were never intended to please any user in the first place.

So we loaded the slop canon to maximum power, but there is no target to fire at. The processes for creating software are optimized, but what happens to the gold rush when everyone has ten shovels, and there is only one gold nugget left?

I’m absolutely on board with generating code with AI (as long as AI is ethical, and the way it’s used emphasizes quality software), but it’s really time we start to listen and make software for people again.