Hacker News Reader

Comment by andrewmutz | Hacker News Reader

Why does it sound like layoffs? If you keep the team size the same and use the productivity increase to deliver more business value, how is that layoffs?

View on HN

If I figure out a way to make my workers produce 10 times more widgets each, it doesn't automatically follow that there is a market for the extra 9 widgets. Otherwise I would have hired 9 extra workers before that invention to fulfill the market demand.

Making the widget cheaper doesn't necessarily create demand either. I will not buy 10 times more toothbrushes or writing pens if their prices suddenly decreased to 1 cent.

The demand for software or features will not increase at the speed of our ability to produce them.

That is the fallacy of all those MBA degrees with exponential growth expectations, they never take into account the physical limitations of goods, like your very good examples.

If you can get more done with less, your choices are either do more by spending the same, or spend less and get the same output.

Why do you think 100% of all companies will choose the first? Obviously some will choose the latter, hence it sounds like layoffs.

Because the limiting factor for what you can deliver has never been, and still isn’t, developer productivity.

Talking point: I think it is communication, and AI (notably information exchange in “Claudish”) is not as effective there.

with more productive teams you can have smaller teams and better communication

Thus layoffs, no need to keep as many employees around.

There is no MBA like magical growth, the amount of customers is a physical limitation of inhabitants on planet Earth that are willing to actually use a specific piece of software, regardless of how productive it was made in first place.

It’s layoffs if the demand doesn’t grow to meet the output

Reply on news.ycombinator.com