this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2026
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Programming

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Fast Software: More Programmers, Not Fewer (www.yegor256.com)
submitted 3 days ago by stan_stanminson@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/programming@programming.dev
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Just like fast fashion replaced tailors with factory workers and machine operators, fast software will replace programmers with AI operators. And the market will demand many of them. Many more than large software companies employ today.

The new world will need more programmers (AI operators) than it needs now. Because the demand for custom software will soon start growing. Everyone will want their own Photoshop. Every developer will want their own IDE and their own Linux. And they will throw them away without hesitation. Just like I throw away my shoes every year and get new ones.

I share this here to see what are your thoughts on this.

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[–] litchralee@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 days ago

Just like fast fashion replaced tailors with factory workers

I'm not sure this is right. If I wanted cheap clothes in the 1980s, I would go to a thrift store, not a tailor. If I wanted to hem up some pants I bought, I go to a tailor. In the 2020s, the former might have changed to online fast fashion behemoths, but there's no replacement for a tailor to do up some pants.

If I generously assume "tailors" is shorthand for a fashion designer that can also sew their own designs from fabric, then it's still wrong because fast fashion has never been about enabling designers that have no hand-sewing skills. Instead, it's about churning out mind-boggling amounts of product, irrespective of demand. Post-scarcity capitalism theory says that any product will sell at the right price, and the price for fast fashion is rock bottom.

fast software will replace programmers with AI operators

If "fast software" is going to mean shoddy software that's churned out just for the sake of it, then this is the only apt comparison to fast fashion. Even without AI, I don't think most modern software engineering or programming is comparable to tailoring or even fashion design.

When the opening comparison is so deeply flawed, I'm not exactly keen on reading the rest of the article.