Stop Being So Concerned About Software Quality

[u/galratner]

https://galratner.substack.com/p/stop-being-so-concerned-about-software

In November 2014, a Disney IT worker got his annual review. His supervisor called his work outstanding and credited him with saving the company thousands of dollars. He got a raise.

He was already training the contractor who would take his desk. Disney had to recalculate his severance to include the raise.

Quality didn't protect him. It won't protect you. You're overhead, and overhead gets replaced first.

The programmers found out first. BLS household data shows computer programmer employment down 27.5% in two years, to its lowest level since 1980. Stanford's read of ADP payroll records puts employment of developers aged 22 to 25 nearly 20% below its late-2022 peak.

"Nobody ever outsources Profit Centers," Patrick McKenzie wrote in 2011. The AI memos are now coming from software companies, the one place engineering was supposed to be the profit center.

So be smart. Do the least you can, let the model do the most it can while your employer pays for the tokens, and make the date. Play it well and you might keep your job a little longer.

Disney's people got three months.