Comment by atomicnumber3

The problem is that non-technical people just see The Code. And now when they prompt an LLM they also see The Code. Voila - finally we don't need those pesky engineers.

Communicating like this is to try to get them to understand that The Code is barely about the text on the screen and is instead about much more - both abstract in the code (but how on earth do you explain that to someone nontechnical without just sounding like "no trust me my job is really hard, I promise.") and also in all the external stuff - the world The Code lives in (users, ops, support staff...).

Is it a perfect analogy? Of course not, and I'd never explain it like this to someone technical. But they're not the audience.

---

Adjacent: I've always gotten the feeling that even the most well-meaning/trusting nontechnical leaders have always been fairly nonplussed by software complexity and software development.

Deep down, they seem to think it can't possibly be that hard, despite the fact they can't write it themselves. Sometimes, even worse, they have dabbled in writing small, or even medium-sized solo projects. And think - well isn't software engineering just doing that but with other people? And their attitudes can reflect them, sometimes all the time, sometimes just slipping through when under duress like delayed projects etc.

And yet despite their attitudes, they then also find:

- if they try to outsource, they have a bad time

- if they try to proooompt, they have a bad time

- if they try to pay less, they have a bad time

and so the invisible hand of the free market itself forces their hand in paying prodigious salaries and fighting to retain talent. And all throughout they remain internally nonplussed even if they manage to keep up appearances.