The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source - The 'developer replacement' hype cycle (News)

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

We're doing a live show in Denver this July, Danilo Alonso has seen the 'developer replacement' hype cycle many times, Dan Sinker says we're in the Who Cares Era, Cap looks like a solid alternative to typical CAPTCHA solutions, Michael Flarup on the return of texture, depth, and expressiveness in UI & Kan is an open source alternative to Trello.

What's up nerds? I'm Jared and this is ChangeLog news for the week of Monday June 2nd 2025. Question, what are you up to at the end of July? Hopefully you're up for joining us in Denver for a live show on stage at the Oriental Theater. We'll be kaisening, we'll be launching Pipe Lee, we'll be doing all kinds of stuff. Learn all about it following the link in the newsletter and get your tickets quick. There's only 100 seats available. Okay, let's get into this week's news.

The recurring cycle of developer replacement hype. Danilo Alonso has seen it all before. Quote, every few years a shiny new technology emerges that promises to make software developers obsolete. The headlines follow a predictable pattern. The end of coding. Anyone can build apps now. Or my personal favorite,

why your 5 year old will be programming before learning to read. The executives get excited, the consultants circle like sharks, PowerPoint decks multiply, budgets shift, and then reality sets in." In this post, Danilo counts the rotations of the endless carousel of replacement promises from the no code slash low code revolution, to the cloud revolution, to the offshore revolution, to the current AI coding assistant revolution. Then he finishes up with an explainer on why the crowd that believes AI will replace developers have it all wrong.

Quote, code is not an asset, it's a liability. Every line must be maintained, debugged, secured, and eventually replaced. The real asset is the business capability that code enables. If AI makes writing code faster and cheaper, it's really making it easier to create liability. When you can generate liability at unprecedented speed, the ability to manage and minimize that liability strategically

becomes exponentially more valuable. The skill that survives and thrives isn't writing code, it's architecting systems. And that's the one thing AI can't do. The Who Cares era. Dan Sinker was disheartened to learn of a story published in the Chicago Sun Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer that contains facts, experts, and book titles entirely made up by an AI chatbot. Quote, The thing that is the most disheartening to me is how at every step along the way, nobody cared. The writer didn't care. The supplement's editors didn't care. The biz people on both sides of the

sale of the supplement didn't care. The production people didn't care, and the fact that it took two days for anyone to discover this epic f-up in print means that ultimately the reader didn't care either." Dan is calling this the Who Cares era, where completely disposable things are shoddily produced for people to mostly ignore. But it doesn't have to be this way. Dan's call to action. Quote.

In the who cares era, the most radical thing you can do is care. In a moment where machines churn out mediocrity, make something yourself. Make it imperfect. Make it rough. Just make it. A lightweight, proof of work, CAPTCHA. CAP is a project that looks like a solid alternative to the typical CAPTCHA solutions like ReCAPTCHA, HCAPTCHA, and CloudFlare Turnstyle.

Instead of making humans solve complex puzzles, it requires SHA-256 proof of work computations. Why proof of work? Every CAPTCHA can eventually be solved, whether by AIs, algorithms, or humans paid via CAPTCHA farms. This results in an endless cat and mouse game between attackers and defenders. The crucial difference lies in the cost imposed on attackers. Imagine that sending 10,000 spam messages costs $1, potentially earning $10.

That's a profitable venture. If CAP increases the computational cost so that sending those messages now costs $100, the spammer loses $90 and this eliminates the financial incentive." CAP is an open source JavaScript implementation. It's customizable and offers a standalone Docker image with a REST API so it can be used from any backend language. It's now time for sponsored news. Retool agents have arrived.

We've all been there copying and pasting between ChatGPT and our actual work tools like we're some kind of human API. Well that ends now, because Retool just launched agents. AI that doesn't just think, but actually works. Instead of writing you a refund policy, a Retool agent processes the actual refund. It pulls customer data from Postgres, checks your policy docs, calculates amounts in NetSuite,

updates inventory, issues credits through Stripe, and notifies customers via Twilio, end to end, autonomously. Here's the cherry on top. Retool agents inherits every tool your team has already built in Retool. Your years of internal tooling instantly becomes your AI workforce's toolkit. And you can watch them work in real-time with complete transparency. No black boxes. Companies like AWS and Databricks have already automated over 100 million hours of work

using Retool. That's nearly $5 billion in labor value. Stop being the middle person between AI and your systems and check out Retool Agents today at retool.com slash agents. It's in public beta and ready for you to try out again. Retool.com slash agents. The future is colorful and dimensional. Michael Flairup writes on the return of texture, depth, and expressiveness in UI.

Quote, flat design is over. The future is colorful and dimensional. Those aren't my words. They're Brian Chesky's, CEO of Airbnb after what can only be described as a landmark redesign of the platform. A redesign full of whimsical, animated, 3D icons and warm, tactile surfaces." End quote. I couldn't be more excited by this new direction. On our recent Friends episode with Resend's Xenaroche,

I asked him where the trends in web design were headed because, quite frankly, I'm done with this linear-inspired, black, shiny everything phase. Michael's here for it too, but he also thinks we need some new language Quite frankly, I'm done with this linear-inspired, black, shiny everything phase. Michael is here for it too, but he also thinks we need some new language for the design shift led by Airbnb. Because it's not skeuomorphism exactly, he's calling it diamorphism, which is defined as A growing tendency toward intentional dimensionality, layered, tactile, digital first and full of

character. I don't know if the term diamorphism will stick, but I couldn't be happier that the winds are blowing in this direction. I'm super curious to see what Apple unveils at WWDC next week with their big rumored redesign. An open source alternative to Trello. At its core, Trello's list of lists is a very powerful organizational tool. Unfortunately, all the cruft that accumulated around those lists of lists over the years soured me on the product.

Con, which you can find at con.bn, looks today a lot like Trello looked back when I first fell in love with it. Also it's open source, self-hostable, and easy to start on their cloud. That's the news for now, but go and subscribe to the ChangeLog newsletter for the full scoop of links worth clicking on, such as Decomplexification The case for using a web browser as your terminal And the white-collar bloodbath is all part of the AI hype machine Get in on the newsletter at changelog.news. Have a great week, like, subscribe and leave us a 5 star review to help out the show and

hopefully I'll see you in Denver.