2026-06-11

Narayanan pointing to a Normal Tech essay on why AI hasn’t replaced software engineers

a strong counterweight to simplistic codegen-output metrics and a better model for evaluating labor impact.

Original source

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Gist: argues the “AI is replacing software engineers” story is mostly AI-washed layoffs rather than evidence of capability-driven displacement; software work is a decide-execute-deliver sandwich, and AI mainly compresses the execute middle while decision-making, accountability, and deep contextual understanding remain stubbornly human bottlenecks.

Newsletter angle: “AI writes more code, but that’s not the same as replacing engineers” + sandwich model / anti-AI-washing thesis.

Retrieval note: extracted via FXTwitter API; followed linked Normal Tech essay for fuller argument (article fetch truncated near the end, but core thesis and evidence were captured).