• @thequickben@lemm.ee
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    1 month ago

    Software engineer here. You’re completely wrong. The amount of work it takes to maintain and extend functionality to existing software is even bigger than the original cost of building it.

    Get some time understanding how software teams work and you’ll understand. There’s a reason C Suites are hoping AI generated code can replace developers. They can’t hire enough of them.

    • HobbitFoot
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      11 month ago

      Is there really a need to extend functionality like there was 10 years ago?

      • @thequickben@lemm.ee
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        31 month ago

        Yes. That’s at least half of the work I do on a daily basis. How else do companies in the same market compete with each other if they cannot add on to functionality and remain static? That’s a quick way to lose market share to your competition.

        • HobbitFoot
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          01 month ago

          We’re at a point of effective monopoly and vastly increased costs of creating competition.

          The spigot of free money has been turned off, so most projects today need to have a planned out ROI, which is why enshitification has become such a big thing recently. Improvement for competition sake is out the door unless the incumbent is weak or a jump is needed as the existing revenue stream is collapsing.

          • @thequickben@lemm.ee
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            1 month ago

            What are you going on about?

            I don’t work in a space with a monopoly.

            My employer doesn’t have free money. They compete in a huge market and earn money while doing so.

            Not every company has the business model you described. The world would not run if that was the case.

            • HobbitFoot
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              11 month ago

              Yeah, but a lot of the discussion has been about those companies given how well they pay and how dominant they are in the industry.