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Has the cost of building software dropped 90%?

(martinalderson.com)
413 points martinald | 3 comments | 08 Dec 25 19:00 UTC | HN request time: 0.741s | source
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BigHatLogan ◴[08 Dec 25 19:58 UTC] No.46196834[source]▶
Good write-up. I don't disagree with any of his points, but does anybody here have practical suggestions on how to move forward and think about one's career? I've been a frontend (with a little full stack) for a few years now, and much of the modern landscape concerns me, specifically with how I should be positioning myself.

I hear vague suggestions like "get better at the business domain" and other things like that. I'm not discounting any of that, but what does this actually mean or look like in your day-to-day life? I'm working at a mid-sized company right now. I use Cursor and some other tools, but I can't help but wonder if I'm still falling behind or doing something wrong.

Does anybody have any thoughts or suggestions on this? The landscape and horizon just seems so foggy to me right now.

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1. embedding-shape ◴[08 Dec 25 20:08 UTC] No.46196974[source]▶
Don't chase specific technologies, especially not ones driven by for-profit companies. Chase ideas, become great in one slice of the industry, and the very least you can always fall back on that. Once established within a domain, you can always try to branch out, and feel a lot more comfortable doing so.

Ultimately, software is for doing something, and that something can be a whole range of things. If you become really good at just a slice of that, things get a lot easier regardless of the general state of the industry.

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2. BigHatLogan ◴[08 Dec 25 20:14 UTC] No.46197043[source]▶
Thanks for the response. When you say "one slice of the industry", is the suggestion to understand the core business of whatever I'm building instead of being the "specs to code" person? I guess this is where the advice starts to become fuzzy and vague for me.
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3. aswegs8 ◴[11 Dec 25 08:20 UTC] No.46228904[source]▶
I would say that could be domain knowledge in your business, but as you said you do frontend it could be mobile, UI/UX, security, ...