The Age of Cubes

DHH calls this the age of agents. I'd call it the age of silicon. Or maybe the age of temptation. Better yet the age of cubes.

Some things take an enormous amount of time to build. They take that long because craftsmanship is involved, and human error adds character and meaning to all of it. Look at architecture and it's obvious which things stand the test of time. Not all of them. But some, time simply cannot ignore. The Basilica of the Sagrada Familia doesn't change, yet it's grand, beautiful and irreplaceable.

Silicon is replaceable. The more of it you get, the more meaningless it becomes. Rather boring. The same old thing slapped into a hundred formats. So boring that every major city competes to build the same tall glass cubes we call skyscrapers.

What DHH won't tell you openly is that in this age of agents, you'll be crafting the same old cubes.

The cube goes up fast and photographs well. From three blocks away you can't tell it from the one beside it.

That's the trade you're being offered. Speed for sameness. An agent will hand you a hundred versions of a thing before lunch and not one of them is yours.

I'm not saying refuse the tools. I'm saying decide what you won't hand off. The part where the human error lives is usually the part worth keeping.

Build the cube with the agent if you have to. Just don't expect anyone to remember it.