An old friend with many years of software development experience yesterday reminded me of the old saying: “if you can explain a problem, it is half solved”.
Chatting about it we agreed that even with the current generation of AI tools to support software development, we are getting closer and closer to “if you can explain it, it is solved!”.
The new challenge is going to be getting the next generation of software developers off the ground. More and more the jobs performed by junior developers will be taken on by AI agents, making it harder for young people to kickstart their career.
We need more than ever skilled professionals who can understand the complexity of the world and know how to use AI to solve difficult problems. The apprenticeship model is broken. We are building a new one.