Post

The more I experiment with AI the more convinced I am the real moat in Software Dev will be folks who still practice primarily coding by hand.

12/5/26, 1:15 pm0 reposts3 likes

Dev Wells

@wlls.dev

12 May

I guess this is a good time to point out as well that I don't buy the "you'll be left behind argument", but I feel like plenty of other posts have already done that subject justice.

Dev Wells

@wlls.dev

12 May

I mean, think about it. If LLMs get so good that they write better code than even the top 1% of programmers (which is a big if) AND they somehow also manage to handle the other parts of software engineering that are more important than programming (the mental representations, etc)...

Dev Wells

@wlls.dev

12 May

then what is stopping from engineers who understand what is going on from just starting their own ventures? Knowing how software engineering works, surely, would give you an upper hand in utilizing these tools to generate value. ...this is already what happens with startups?

Dev Wells

@wlls.dev

12 May

And in a world where that doesn't happen, then it must be the case that these tools aren't perfect or have major drawbacks (as they currently do today, for example). In which case, being able to code by hand is both necessary and appreciates in value as fewer people learn the trade proper.