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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: 0.405s | 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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trollbridge ◴[09 Dec 25 03:41 UTC] No.46201013[source]▶
Well said. The cost of building a CRUD has dropped 90%.

The open question is why people needed fancy AI tools like Claude to write CRUDs in the first place. These kind of tasks ought to be have been automated a long time ago.

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1. raxxorraxor ◴[09 Dec 25 10:00 UTC] No.46203209[source]▶
CRUD as a concept is flawed. It is more or less any computational system with input -> process -> output. Just as this abstract system can have any complexity, the same is true for any CRUD app.

You don't need Claude to write it. But you cannot generate solid web forms with the same speed. What usually would have taken you a few hours is now solved in much less time.

I doubt software will get cheaper though, requirements will adapt.

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2. trollbridge ◴[09 Dec 25 17:02 UTC] No.46207385[source]▶
If I wanted to make a crud, I’d whip up my own little framework first (a few hours) and then cranking out forms would be almost trivial.