THE DISAPPEARING MIDDLE OF SOFTWARE WORK

Summary from the TLDR newsletter

The center of software work is moving. Previously, the model of software work - turning intent into something real - absorbed most of the time, attention, and craft of software teams. AI agents can now produce working code from goals, context, and tasks. As systems improve, the middle will get thinner, and less time will be spent manually translating intent into implementation. Developers will still need to understand the problem, gather the right context from customers and internal teams, and shape the work. Directing and managing agent work will become the craft in this era.