Comment by the_af
6 days ago
What he built was, almost by definition, a prototype.
The problem is that, as it often happens, the prototype was then deployed to production. In this case, it was partly the fault of your non-technical friend who didn't know better, but software engineering history shows us this sometimes happens because of customer/boss pressure.
So it's often the case prototypes designed to prove feasibility or to demo to customers become production software, and AI makes this undesirable result even more frictionless.
It seems in our line of business we are doomed to repeat past mistakes -- forever.
Something I learned is prototype never should be shown to non technical C-tier officials.
They will push out to the moon even after all the technical staff had signed a report saying why it's a price of trash and why shouldn't be done.
Double that down of they are financial or research. Commercials are much more practical and understand you needed a real product for client retention.
Maybe we get something good of this push for AI and people begins to understand the difference between product and prototype.
Forever, until our cursed profession gets an official licensing body like other real Engineering professions. A Civil Enginnee can't sign on a prototype bridge design that then gets built and opened to the public, because any problem means potential jail time and possibly loss of licence.
There should be legal consequences for treating people's data with reckless abandon. It's normal for restaurants to be inspected. Commercial apps should also be inspected by independent bodies and fines must be paid if serious negligence is found. Imagine finding out that your favorite restaurant had a rat infestation on their storage room for a year.
And of someone gets food poisoning because the restaurant used expired ingredients, it gets heavily fined and possibly shuttered. This should also happen with software. If your root AWS user key is leaked in your frontend, your service deserves to be shuttered.