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by FredPret 738 days ago
Software is eating the world, but according to [0] there's only 27 million of us in the whole world.

We need all the tools we can get to amplify our efforts.

Further, I find that AI makes it much easier to dabble outside my wheelhouse and to interface with other technical people much quicker and better. Where I used to have to read endlessly to understand the context of unknown-to-me technology, now I can get that in seconds. Previously this luxury was only available to large corporates who can hire a wide variety of experts.

I think we'll see dramatically more 1-10 person software businesses in future.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_engineering_demograph...

1 comments

There's no shortage of technical info on the internet. If you want to learn about networks or printing or Active Directory or databases or Windows APIs or Web Servers or security or whatever you like, it's sll there.

Yes, the AI let's you ask questions and get answers. It's a more interactive approach, and it helps to clarify thinking, but having a solid foundation will always lead to better understanding.

As someone who has always worked in a small company, and as someone who has by necessity had to learn many different parts of IT, up and down the IT stack, it's always been possible.

Equally I work with businesses, the vast majority of whom are less than 10 people - and those small businesses produce code every day which is used all over the place. Turns out, if you knew a domain really well, could code, and don't have 3 layers of management, good things can get done really quickly.

Building a broad base certainly has always been possible, but it just got a lot quicker, is what I'm saying. And that speed leads to tighter feedback loops too.
There's no shortage of technical info on the internet

Right, but last time I checked it was behind pages of seo bullshit. I suspect many of us still have that inertia since our learning age, so knowing where to get information feels natural, while in reality it’s knowledge aquired with years or decades. Imagine forgetting all you know and trying to figure out the learning meta of that medium article. Multiply it by what google “search” is today. You’re basically screwed.