February 7, 2026
Free code, pricey feelings
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Fog ahead: Devs brawl over “free coding,” jobs, and AI’s next move
TLDR: An AWS engineer says turning ideas into code is becoming almost free, pushing programmers toward building solid, secure systems. The comments explode: skeptics call it sci‑fi fluff, doomers warn of job loss to AI, and founders insist good engineers still matter even with AI tools.
AWS engineer Marc Brooker dropped a thoughtful note about the future of programming: writing business rules as code is now “near-zero” cost, wiring services is also cheap, and the real expense is in building reliable, secure systems. He sketches two roads—one mourning the craft, one embracing powerful new tools—and even includes an old-school analog vs. digital parable. Cue instant internet split.
The loudest reactions? One camp says the post is all vibes, no spine. User ossa-ma slammed it as “a lot of words” without bold predictions, demanding a stake in the ground. Another camp mocked the headline claim: stephenlf quipped that “near-zero” code sounds like science fiction, while a chorus riffed on Brooker’s fog metaphor with jokes about bringing a fog machine to standups. Meanwhile, the doomer energy surged: IhateAI_2 argued software’s real job is replacing human labor with compute—humans out, chips in—calling optimism a Silicon Valley sales pitch.
There was calmer pushback, too. mohsen1 said the “cave-dweller bug whisperer” archetype may struggle because AI coding is great at surgical fixes, but builders who ship products will thrive. And a SaaS cofounder, monero-xmr, declared LLMs (large language models—AI that writes text and code) are table stakes, yet good engineers still matter in massive systems. The meme of the day: “Zero-cost code, max-cost feelings.”
Key Points
- •Marc Brooker, an AWS engineer in Seattle, authored a reflection on technology career paths amid shifting software development costs.
- •He claims the cost of converting written business logic into code has dropped to near-zero.
- •He states the cost of integrating services and libraries has also dropped to near-zero.
- •He argues that building efficient, reliable, secure end-to-end systems remains costly and is only slowly becoming cheaper.
- •He outlines two paths: continuing in a diminishing craft of programming or leveraging powerful new tools to create new companies, research fields, and careers.