Writing Code Was Never The Bottleneck

With all the recent hype around large language models (LLMs) and their ability to effortlessly generate code, Pedro Tavares reminds us that it’s worth reflecting on a common misconception, namely writing code was never the bottleneck in software development. If we forget this, we risk assuming code quality rather than ensuring it.

The marginal cost of adding new software is approaching zero, especially with LLMs. But what is the price of understanding, testing, and trusting that code? Higher than ever.

It’s not a new challenge. Developers have long joked about “copy-paste engineering”, but the velocity and scale that LLMs enable have amplified those copy-paste habits.

When code is generated faster than it can be discussed or reviewed, teams risk falling into a mode where quality is assumed rather than ensured.

There’s real value in faster prototyping, scaffolding, and automation. But LLMs don’t remove the need for clear thinking, careful review, and thoughtful design. If anything, those become even more important as more code gets generated.

Yes, the cost of writing code has indeed dropped. But the cost of making sense of it together as a team hasn’t.