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Has the cost of building software dropped 90%?

(martinalderson.com)
413 points martinald | 2 comments | 08 Dec 25 19:00 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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simonw ◴[08 Dec 25 22:37 UTC] No.46198601[source]▶
The cost of writing simple code has dropped 90%.

If you can reduce a problem to a point where it can be solved by simple code you can get the rest of the solution very quickly.

Reducing a problem to a point where it can be solved with simple code takes a lot of skill and experience and is generally still quite a time-consuming process.

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manquer ◴[09 Dec 25 00:49 UTC] No.46199922[source]▶
Yes, but for experienced engineers that is still a huge huge change .

Even 12 months ago simplifying tasks alone was insufficient, you still needed a large group engineers to actually write, review and maintain a typical product for solid startup offering. This came with the associated overhead of hiring and running mid sized teams.

A lot of skilled people (y)our age/experience are forced into doing people management roles because there was no other way to deliver a product that scales(in team and complexity not DAU).

A CTO of mid-stage startup had to be good architect, a decent engineering manager, be deeply involved in product and also effectively communicate with internal and external customers.

Now for startups setting up new you can either defer the engineering manager and people complexity lot latter than you did before. You could have a very senior but small team who can be truly 10x level and be more productive without the overhead of communication, alignment and management that comes with large teams.

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tldr; Skilled engineers can generate outsized returns to orgs that set them up to be successful(far more than before), I can't say if compensation is reflecting this yet, if not it soon will.

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1. conductr ◴[09 Dec 25 08:50 UTC] No.46202737[source]▶
The funny thing is a lot of that was never really necessary per se. Tons of stories about great projects coming out of tiny teams. They’re not likely geniuses, they just had focus and clarity and a drive to GSD without excessive unproductive activity. I’ve long been a proponent of offshore developers for cost savings. You have to manage the process and people differently, but the output per dollar (pre AI) was phenomenal and when managing them I could put my brand of low touch management in place. Usually consisting of one weekly 1 hour meeting for everyone, then emphasizing nobody spins their wheels ever for more than an hour during the week without asking for help, then just making sure everyone was crystal clear on what we were working on and the priorities. I’ve never been a fan of sprints or really any unit of time block as a milestone because I don’t think it incentivizes people to finish early. I’m also not a perfectionist. If it’s spaghetti code and it works, great, we can clean it up on the next pass (within reason of course, but spirit is build, test, operationalize, then if it’s useful and has some staying power then refactor later. For all this, hiring cheap labor overseas has always made much more sense than hiring locally (in US) based on cost but also based one working style/culture. Somehow as labor rates shot up here in last couple of decades, people found excuses not to offshore. Some of it valid if you can’t manage the project correctly as it is different, but for me the solution has been to adapt my management style versus crying about it being difficult and hiring locally to be lazy. It always struck me as odd that startups and investors hadn’t leveraged the labor rate arbitrage opportunity that exists.
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2. pdimitar ◴[09 Dec 25 10:47 UTC] No.46203471[source]▶
You hiring?

I have noticed lately that getting into an USA company as a foreigner became very difficult. I get a lot of praise on culture fit and tech assignments and then get told off with something very similar to "can't get compliance to agree to work with Bulgaria".

Sigh.

But I get what you mean. I started using LLMs and that gave me a perspective what it is to be an engineering manager.