Cheap code

Producing code is becoming cheap.

That does not mean producing good software is becoming cheap as well.

When writing a function takes minutes, it is easy to confuse volume with progress.

But the important cost moves somewhere else.

It is in deciding which problem is worth solving.

In understanding the rules that cannot be broken.

In choosing an architecture that survives the first change.

In proving that the result works outside the demonstration.

And in operating the system once a company depends on it.

AI can produce many correct answers to a badly framed question.

It can also build the wrong decision very quickly.

So the cheaper it becomes to write code, the more expensive it becomes to work without judgment.

Code is no longer the scarce resource.

Clarity still is.