Calling all developers. Calling all developers!

You have a limited window. Your time is running out.

We software engineers still have an edge in the digital age. We understand how apps work under the hood—frontend, backend, devops, integrations. We know the pain of debugging, and the invisible complexity that lives between "it runs" and "it scales."

But that edge is slipping.

We’re entering the Ikea-ification of software development.

Just like Ikea made furniture cheap, fast, and frictionless, new AI tools are doing the same for software. Apps like Lovable and Replit. Environments like Claude Code. They're starting to fill the role we used to own.

What’s that I hear? A protest in the distance.

You're right: those apps are brittle, untested, not ready for production load or scale.

But that doesn't matter. Here's why:

1. The Pareto Principle is in full force. “Good enough” beats great when it’s cheaper, faster, and out the door first. Most users don’t want a perfectly battle-tested app. They want MVP. Fast.

2. AI tools are improving fast—and they’re backed by VC money and Silicon Valley exit energy. Teams of terrifyingly smart technocrats are working to make production-ready, tested apps as easy to spin up as a Notion doc. That day may not be today. Maybe not next year. But it's coming.

There may still be a place for hand-crafted code. Hell, maybe some people will still want bespoke software the way they want furniture from a local carpenter.

But most people? They want Ikea.

It’s fast. It’s cheap. It looks good enough. The UX is solid. And most importantly: it’s reliable.

With Ikea, you know what you’re getting. No negotiating with a carpenter. No drawn-out relationship with a contractor. No decision fatigue. The friction is low, the purchase is easy.

People don’t want to scope a sprint. They want to click ‘Deploy’ and move on.

And they’re going to.

Here’s the good news, devs: you still have an edge. But the window is short.

You still know the pain of deployment, the tedium of API integrations, the chaos of testing infra, env vars, the whole messy stack. You know what it takes to ship something that doesn’t just run, but scales.

That knowledge still gives you leverage. But not for long.

Right now, you can be the orchestrator—because you’ve been the instrumentalist.

But soon, even orchestration will be automated by companies funded specifically to remove the need for you.

So here’s my invitation: if you’ve been putting off building your app, start now.

If you're still clinging to VSCode, switch to Cursor. Learn it. Build like a maniac. Adapt while your systems knowledge still sets you apart from the people who’ve never debugged a live deployment in their life.

Build now—while the tools still need you.

Soon, they won’t.