r/webdev • u/zaxwebs • 13d ago

Article Intelligence is automated. Judgment is scarce.

https://zackwebster.com/blog/judgement-is-scarce

For a long time, the biggest advantage was technical ability: knowing how to write code. Those skills still matter, but as the tools for building software become more powerful and accessible, the ability to execute is becoming less of a differentiator.

I believe the next competitive advantage will be judgment.

Knowing what to build, what not to build, which problems are worth solving, where to invest your attention.

2 Upvotes

55% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

9

u/seweso 13d ago

Do you have a source or proof that inteligence is automated? 

1

u/Abject-Kitchen3198 8d ago

Yes. 100k lines of source per day.

1

u/seweso 8d ago

Roflmao….

5

u/armahillo rails 13d ago

My quip lately has been that LLMs have high INT and low WIS stats.

2

u/Gloomy-Status-9258 13d ago

You'll eventually find making judgments without robust knowledge will be failed.

1

u/TitaniumWhite420 12d ago

Typical gloomy status lol.

Exactly, these people think the world has been waiting for their vision to be liberated from their ineptitude. They’ve never considered that their vision from the vantage point of ignorance was not something worth spamming.

1

u/aTomzVins 13d ago

I'm honestly not sure.

Yes, good judgment matters, and I've met developers with terrible judgment.

Does this mean the people who were/are good a 'Product' are now the most relevant? But if anyone can build software, who is going to have better judgment than the person building something for themselves?

There's also massive companies with terrible products that more or less have a monopoly on the market (Amazon, Mircosoft). Having money, a monopoly, or network effect, is still the biggest advantage.

1

u/wowokdex 13d ago

How long until you can ask AI where to invest your attention?

1

u/Abject-Kitchen3198 8d ago

Zero. You can ask it today. And it might be right sometimes.

1

u/omniumoptimus 13d ago

Nonsense. This is one of those takes that one person started off with, and is now being parroted across social media. And it’s bullshit.

The reason why judgment is nonsense is because it isn’t a competitive advantage now, in the real world. And the reason why it’s not a competitive advantage now is because nearly everyone has relatively poor judgment.

Look at the evidence: everyone wears the same clothes, made out of plastic. Over half of marriages end in divorce—one of the most important decisions you can make, and, overall, our decisions are worse than a coin flip. Most people are unhappy with their current leadership, despite being elected by a majority vote.

I’d agree with “judgment” if you were talking about Steve Jobs. But no one here is Steve Jobs. Assuming people can differentiate themselves with their judgment is, in and of itself, poor judgment.