Zig Creator Calls Spade a Spade, Anthropic Blows Smoke
I harass the sea with my tiny boat and am called a pirate, you do it with a great fleet and are called a king.
Anthropic is actively campaigning to end software engineering . They need you to believe they can do that. Well, maybe it’s not you that they need to convince. Maybe it’s your C-Suite, various world leaders, or the manager of your retirement fund. They’ve raised $132 billion in investment, and are approaching an IPO valued over $1 trillion. Since they cannot show profitability , this depends on selling their hypothetical future impact.
In literary terms, Anthropic is an unreliable narrator .
One of their key narratives is: Coding is going away, then the rest of software engineering , and eventually most other human labor . This kind of money behind this kind of story has an impact, regardless of how true we think the story is.
People will make architecture, product, and staffing decisions based on these events. Many of those decisions will be based on fear - fear of layoffs, rapture-esk warnings of being “Left Behind”, Doom Trolling , etc…
To make good decisions we need to think clearly, which is hard right now. Put on your skeptical hat.