Fchollet: Software Engineering Difficulty Is Constant at Every Abstraction Level
burny_tech · x · 2026-09-25
François Chollet pushes back on Simonw's claim that coding agents make software engineering harder: engineering difficulty is essentially constant at any abstraction level, because human cognition adapts to new tools until it fully utilizes itself. Tools are affordances, not magic wands — great software engineering was immensely challenging before and still is today. Simonw counters that agents do make things harder: unlocking their potential requires extraordinary discipline and knowledge.
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