Coding Will Be Solved For Everybody

By Y Combinator

Categories: VC, Startup, Design

Summary

Coding will be 'solved' for everyone as software engineers become generalists, writing specs, talking to users, and coding across all functions - from product and design to finance. The software engineer role as we know it may disappear entirely.

Key Takeaways

1. The title 'software engineer' may go away as the work becomes more generalized across the team, with everyone coding regardless of their function.
2. Engineers are already becoming generalists, with PMs, designers, and even finance coding alongside them on the same team.
3. Beyond just coding, engineers will also be responsible for writing specs and directly interfacing with users, rather than siloed in an engineering role.
4. This trend of everyone coding, regardless of role, is likely to spread across the industry, transforming the nature of technical work.
5. While the title 'software engineer' may remain as a 'vestigial thing', the actual work and responsibilities of technical team members will become much more fluid and cross-functional.
6. Companies may start experimenting with new role titles beyond just 'software engineer', like 'builder' or 'product manager', to reflect this shift in responsibilities.

Topics

• Generalist Talent
• Role Evolution
• Cross-Functional Teams
• No-Code/Low-Code
• Future of Engineering

Transcript Excerpt

continuing to trace the exponential. I think what will happen is coding will be generally solved for everyone. I think we're going to start to see the title software engineer go away and I think it's just going to be maybe builder, maybe product manager, maybe we'll keep the title as kind of a vestigial thing, but the work that people do, it's not just going to be coding. It's software engineers are also going to be writing specs. they're going to be talking to users like this thing that we're s...