alt Hacker NewsIt isn't just that they believe this - they want a business model where this is how it works. For a big company a star coder is a liability - they have strong labor power, they can leave and they are hard to replace, etc.
Companies want workflows that work with mediocre programmers because they are more like interchangeable parts. This is the real secret to why AI programming will work in a lot of places. If you look at the externalities of employing talented people, shitty code actually looks better than great code.
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It's also true that a lot of times, it doesn't even matter how shitty the code is. For example, I'm locked in to a company whose web "app" hasn't functioned for me for the vast majority of the last two to three years. I can't leave without effectively being required to leave my job. So, they still get my business.
Glad I find myself employed under a division called Research and Development. Poaching and retaining highly compensated individuals is the entire purpose.
Bingo. This is something that many people fail to understand.
To these kinds of companies, what's even better than a rack of mediocre programmers? AI agents that you can just conjure up and prompt. They take up no facility space, don't require lunch breaks or vacations, obey all commands and direction, and produce a predictable and consistent amount of output per dollar.
This is the earworm the leaders of these companies have allowed into their minds. Like Agent Mulder, they Want To Believe in this so badly...