Interview knowledge
Article

Thorsten Ball - What I believe about the future of software development

Read the original →

Highlights

Passages saved from the original.

  • Code review will die
  • Humans will only review the system and its composition, but it won’t be in PRs and it won’t be by looking through every line of the code.
  • The craft of writing code will disappear. Yes, there are still Italian shoe makers around. But look at your feet.
  • The triad of PM/Design/Eng will disappear
  • “Engineers” who act as “meat proxies” and shove tickets into agents and report back to humans will no longer be valuable.
  • There’s no proof that “good code” will matter in the future.
  • The notion of “good code” itself is mostly based on the idea that it’s easy/cheap/efficient for humans to work with.

Summary AI-generated

Summarised by an AI assistant when this source was saved. Double-check against the original.

In summary, the most compelling shift is the transition from software as a manual craft to a system-level discipline where AI handles implementation, tokens replace traditional computing paradigms, and success depends entirely on accurately defining problems and orchestrating solutions rather than writing code.

  • Code review, unit testing, and manual coding will become obsolete as AI models handle implementation, shifting the developer's role to high-level system design and business problem-solving.
  • The traditional PM/Design/Engineering triad and agile workflows will collapse, replaced by direct human-AI interaction where tokens and prompt precision replace traditional tooling and tickets.
  • Success will increasingly depend on access to affordable tokens, the ability to clearly specify requirements to avoid "what-you-asked-for" bugs, and focusing on shipping and feedback loops rather than code quality or architecture.
  • While the transition will take years, developers must adapt by mastering system orchestration, requirement specification, and rapid iteration rather than clinging to legacy coding practices or tooling.

Also cited by