The demise of software engineering is overblown — programming becomes control engineering around LLMs
viksit · x · 2026-09-26
- The author argues software engineering is undergoing its biggest step change since inception, but the 'demise' narrative is dramatically overblown.
- Key points:
- Handwritten code is becoming rare; engineers won't need to memorize syntax, but algorithms, data structures and engineering practices stay vital. LLMs are 'thought compilers' — the next step in 50 years of abstraction from binary to assembly to C++.
- LLMs are non-deterministic; correctness maps to the nuclear reactor analogy — you don't control each fission, you build control systems. The 'control rods' are deterministic code around the model: tests, evals, types, invariants, verification.
- Programming shifts from telling computers how, to defining the bounds within which they operate reliably. CS moves up a level, not away.
- Code may become an ephemeral artifact, not the source of truth; the durable assets are intent, constraints, and rules learned from failures. 'Did you read the code' becomes like 'did you read the assembly'.
- The loop: define → generate → verify/observe → update knowledge. Correctness stays a human judgment call — if an LLM tests the wrong assumption, every test passes and the software is still wrong.
- PRs must change too: from showing code diffs to showing other evidence (thread truncates here).
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