Conversational Code Development

Garry Tan shares his perspective on how coding and software development is evolving with AI, particularly focusing on the shift from traditional coding to working with AI-powered development tools. He believes we're at a pivotal moment where the ability to communicate with virtual developers will become more important than writing code directly.

Key Points:

• Fundamental Shift in Development:

  • Moving from "learn to code" to just "code" with AI assistance
  • More important to be able to speak to virtual developers and instruct them precisely
  • Focus on explaining use cases and requirements rather than writing code

• Business Impact of AI Development:

  • Small teams (2-pizza teams) can now build $100M-$1B businesses
  • Corporate America is unprepared for this transformation
  • Traditional companies will get disrupted by more agile startups

• Current State of AI Development:

  • LLMs are capable of ~120 IQ level work
  • Need to break down complex tasks into smaller steps
  • Important to implement proper testing and evaluation systems
  • Avoid "raw dogging" prompts without proper testing

• Best Practices for AI Development:

  • Build worldview directly from customer data and needs
  • Find businesses spending money on knowledge work teams
  • Study their workflow and data
  • Write test cases to ensure consistent results
  • Break down complex prompts into manageable pieces

• Future Concerns:

  • Next-gen models might be 1-2 orders of magnitude more powerful
  • Possibility that models might eventually do the development work themselves
  • Hope is that established brands and moats will benefit from cost structure improvements
  • Companies that establish strong evaluation systems now will have advantage later

• Advice for Businesses:

  • Focus on capturing market share now while technology is evolving
  • Build strong evaluation systems and data advantages
  • Create switching costs through better systems and salesforce
  • Aim to become the next generation of major software companies