alt Hacker NewsThe exoskeleton framing is comforting but it buries the real shift: taste scales now. Before AI, having great judgment about what to build didn't matter much if you couldn't also hire 10 people to build it. Now one person with strong opinions and good architecture instincts can ship what used to require a team.
That's not augmentation, that's a completely different game. The bottleneck moved from "can you write code" to "do you know what's worth building." A lot of senior engineers are going to find out their value was coordination, not insight.
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You can build prototypes real fast, and that's cool. You can't really build products with it. You can use it at most as an accelerant, but you need it in skilled hands else it goes sideways fast.
> taste scales now.
Not having taste also scales now, and the majority of people like to think they're above average.
Before AI, friction to create was an implicit filter. It meant "good ideas" were often short-lived because the individual lacked conviction. The ideas that saw the light of day were sharpened through weeks of hard consideration and at least worth a look.
Now, anyone who can form mildly coherent thoughts can ship an app. Even if there are newly empowered unicorns, rapidly shipping incredible products, what are the odds we'll find them amongst a sea of slop?
Uh, that is the dictionary definition of augmentation.
One person with tools that greatly amplify what that person can accomplish.
Vs not having a person involved at all.
> can ship what used to require a team.
Is the shipped software in the room with us now?
> That's not augmentation, that's a completely different game
Not saying that this comment is ai written, but this phrasing is the em-dash of 2026.