Re: LLMs for coding: One lens on this is that LLM progress changes the Build vs Buy calculus.
Low-power AI coding assistants were useful in both the “build” and “buy” scenarios, but they weren’t impactful enough to change the actual border between build-is-better vs. buy-is-better. More powerful AI coding systems/agents can make a lot of tasks sufficiently easy that dealing with some components starts feeling more like buying than building. Different problem domains have different peak levels of complexity/novelty, so the easier domains will start being affected more and earlier by this build/buy decision boundary shift. Many people don’t travel far from their primary domains, so to some of them it will look like the shift is happening quickly (because it is, in their vicinity) even though on the larger scale it’s still pretty gradual.
Re: LLMs for coding: One lens on this is that LLM progress changes the Build vs Buy calculus.
Low-power AI coding assistants were useful in both the “build” and “buy” scenarios, but they weren’t impactful enough to change the actual border between build-is-better vs. buy-is-better. More powerful AI coding systems/agents can make a lot of tasks sufficiently easy that dealing with some components starts feeling more like buying than building. Different problem domains have different peak levels of complexity/novelty, so the easier domains will start being affected more and earlier by this build/buy decision boundary shift. Many people don’t travel far from their primary domains, so to some of them it will look like the shift is happening quickly (because it is, in their vicinity) even though on the larger scale it’s still pretty gradual.