Years ago, when I studied to become a software engineer, I had a hard time processing C++.
Yes, that basic language that makes the programming world go round.
I understood the mathematics, well, most of it, I guess, but the way it was laid out in code eluded me.
Time went on.
Then came the day I tried explaining coding to a doctor friend of mine. She looked at me like I was explaining the secrets of a Mayan village ritual. I realised why we call it ‘code’. It’s a secret language that nobody gets. Unlike medicine or even physics.
Fast forward to more recent times: I came across a post where a random guy ‘vibe-coded’ an entire SaaS app into existence.
The most I brought into existence back during my coding days was a database that connected Linux and Windows, operating despite the platform differences. Believe me, it WAS a big deal back then.
So technically, coding now was breaking the shackles of secrecy and becoming every bit like medicine and physics. Vibe-coding was making it easy for people, much like my doctor friend of the past, to code applications and build them in days.
Clearly, we’ve come a very long way from the rudimentary days of trying to find the right code, the right flow, removing the errors and praising the hell out of programmers. All in a century or two, perhaps.
There was no planning to accomplish this, just exponential success.
However, this success comes at some cost. Most of us will know ‘what’ to do but lose sight of ‘how’ it is done. Often, we’ll not care until something breaks.
As the barrier to entry is lowered, the reverence and confusion associated with the craft are also removed. In short, we’ve gained a world of instant builders; the thinkers will be by far fewer and more valued.
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