AI may be dubbed the great disruptor, but it’s really just an accelerator of whatever you already have. The 2025 DORA report places AI’s primary role in software development as that of an amplifier — a funhouse mirror that reflects back the good, bad, and ugly of your whole pipeline. AI is proven to be impactful on the individual developer’s work and on the speed of writing code. But, since writing code was never the bottleneck, if traditional software delivery best practices aren’t already in place, this velocity multiplier becomes a debt accelerator.

I don’t think LLMs change the value of rapidly building and releasing small slices of capability. The promise of LLMs is to increase the frequency of that cycle, and doing more in each release.

Even a legend of the industry like Grady Booch, who has been appropriately dismissive of AGI claims and is actively disdainful of AI slop posted recently that he was “gobsmacked” by Claude’s abilities. Booch’s advice to developers alarmed by AI on Oxide’s podcast last week? “Be calm” and “take a deep breath.” From his perspective, having watched and shaped the evolution of the technology first hand over a period of decades, AI is just another step in the industry’s long history of abstractions, and one that will open new doors for the industry.

…whether one wants those doors opened or not ultimately is irrelevant. AI isn’t going away any more than the automated loom, steam engines or nuclear reactors did. For better or for worse, the technology is here for good. What’s left to decide is how we best maximize its benefits while mitigating its costs.

✍️ Fragments: February 18

🔘 @TerminalNotes <- #ai