[DanielHB]

> If junior devs are productively producing software that then goes unused then how productive were they really

Most ways of measuring productivity across an economy (in macro sense) takes into account only the transfer of capital. Meaning someone paying for something. So in this case it will be measurably zeo in most macro-economics studies.

[torginus]

Wonder if that means if I knock out an app using a Claude Code sub in an afternoon, that would've taken me a week previously, and the result is better than what I could've done, does that mean that gross productivity went down?

- I didn't make money, since I got paid for my time

- Anthropic didn't make money, since the amount I paid them for AI is tiny

This sounds wrong to me.

[DanielHB]

If the same amount of people bought your app at the same rate as if you hand-written it, then no. In fact your productivity would have grown 10x (half a day vs 1 work-week). The actual costs paid to Anthropic to make said app would have net-zero effect I believe (not an expert in macro economics).

[rileymat2]

Presumably, someone bought the app.

[icantevenhold]

Consequently 99% of software written is to make it easier to buy stuff (at least in web dev).

They say the internet is for porn but it’s really to sell/buy stuff

Edit: even with LLMs the “killer” application is to make it easier to buy things xD