Leading into the AI Engineer event in San Francisco, I’m looking forward to having my mind blown. That being said, I’m also compelled to think deeply about how we actually get things done in today’s software development landscape.
There is competitive pressure to align on the principles of AI-driven software development. As developers and technical leaders, we are constantly trying to balance our pragmatism in the moment with our visions for the future.
Throughout the history of software development, our collective immune system against hype has been our greatest asset. The safest, most reliable strategy has almost always been to not get swept up in the current fad. You let the early adopters bleed on the bleeding edge, you wait for the dust to settle, and then you adopt the tools that actually survive contact with production. Separating hype from reality is a critical skill for developers at all levels, and erring on the side of hype rejection has usually been smart money in the long run.
In the AI revolution, separating real from hype is still valuable, but our heuristics are failing us, because the revolution is clearly here. Yet, even though there is obviously a massive amount of substance to AI-assisted development, the actual daily discourse is still hype-driven. It is an unhelpful, deafening mix of extreme utopian sentiment on one end and cynical over-dismissal on the other.
