Dense Discovery

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376 / Coding: from craft to commodity

Hi Smiles!

For years, ‘knowing how to code’ was treated like the golden ticket. Even junior software developers were paid absurd amounts of money, and those who couldn’t speak computer watched with a mix of envy and bewilderment. ‘Learn to code’ became the new ‘get a college degree’.

Well, software development is having its assembly line moment. As the machines become more capable, human input is being dramatically devalued. Coding is transforming from craft to manufacture, from bespoke tailoring to fast fashion.

In ‘The rise of industrial software’, Chris Loy argues that AI is turning software from a carefully crafted product into an industrial, disposable commodity.

“In the case of software, the industrialisation of production is giving rise to a new class of software artefact, which we might term disposable software: software created with no durable expectation of ownership, maintenance, or long-term understanding.”

Loy draws comparisons to other industrialised outputs. Just as industrial agriculture gave us both abundance and obesity – cheap food alongside malnutrition – industrial software comes with its own set of unhealthy side effects:

“Industrial systems reliably create economic pressure toward excess, low quality goods. This is not because producers are careless, but because once production is cheap enough, junk is what maximises volume, margin, and reach. The result is not abundance of the best things, but overproduction of the most consumable ones.”

Loy’s comparison of LLMs to steam engines made me pause. The steam engine didn’t just make factories more efficient – it fundamentally restructured civilisation. And software, unlike cheap clothing or ultra-processed food, isn’t just one industry among many. It’s become the substrate of every industry. So it’s easy to see how, for better or worse, the industrialisation of software will have far-reaching consequences.

Of course, industrialisation never completely erases craft. Handmade clothing still exists, so does organic whole food. Loy raises the possibility of an ‘organic software’ movement – the farmers markets of the software industry, if you will. Maybe there’s a future where bespoke code becomes a luxury good, signalling care and quality in a sea of disposable slop.

The bigger question, though, isn’t about craft – it’s about stewardship:

“Previous industrial revolutions externalised their costs onto environments that seemed infinite until they weren’t. Software ecosystems are no different: dependency chains, maintenance burdens, security surfaces that compound as output scales. Technical debt is the pollution of the digital world, invisible until it chokes the systems that depend on it. In an era of mass automation, we may find that the hardest problem is not production, but stewardship. Who maintains the software that no one owns?”

In another essay, Loy argues that developers aren’t being replaced but that their role shifts from writing code to setting practices, from solving problems to architecting systems where AI writes the software. Software that nobody fully understands.

Many developers got into this work because they liked solving puzzles and building things, not because they dreamed of one day becoming middle management for a very fast, very confident intern who occasionally hallucinates. Such is ‘progress’, I guess.

And now to this week’s discoveries. – Kai

DD376

Hi Smiles, and welcome to the Almond issue! This is Dense Discovery, your weekly dose of lovingly curated links from a dark-pattern-riddled web. Writing to you and 38,654 others is Kai Brach based in Narrm. In the previous issue, this link got most of the clicks. Got thoughts on this issue? Simply hit reply – I read every email. Happy discovering!

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Tools

I never thought I could get excited about a public transport app, but Transit instantly got my attention – not just the design, but the brilliant marketing angle: “Your license to a car-free life”. Funded by riders and transit agencies rather than advertisers, they don’t track your location or sell your data. Instead, they focus on making public transit less painful through crowdsourced updates, step-by-step navigation and direct feedback channels that improve actual service. Available in 1000+ cities.

A very fast, minimal infinite canvas web app for drawing, flow-charting and dropping ideas. No sign-up needed, open the link and start working. Exporting as SVG, PNG or editable files is also possible.

Tired of clunky workout apps? Fitera strips away the bloat to focus on fast logging, clean progress graphs and customisable routines. No account required, but you can sign up for some paid premium features.

For anyone juggling multiple calendars across Google, Outlook and iCloud, CalendarBridge syncs them in real-time to reflect your availability without you having to manually block time in three places. Beyond syncing, it includes scheduling pages (like Calendly but checking up to four calendars), a unified calendar view and an AI assistant (of course!?) that books meetings via email. Friends of DD enjoy one month free. Become a Friend to access specials like this.

Wanderings

Charming discoveries from the internet’s back alleys that you don’t need but might love.

WalkmanLand

WalkmanLand is a giant database and a tribute to the long forgotten portable music players from the 80-90s.

What Are The Odds?

A fun exploration of the likelihood of certain outcomes.

Spotless

Select the type of stain and the type of fabric, then learn how to clean it. Simple.

People vs Big Tech

A coalition of civil society groups and activists pushing back against tech monopolies.

Mass Shooting Tracker

Smiles, this exists: a crowd-sourced database of US mass shootings tracking the terrible toll of a gun-crazy nation.

Books

How To Live An Artful Life

Daily artist wisdom for living

Katy Hessel collects daily reflections from artists like Marina Abramović, Nan Goldin and Louise Bourgeois, organising them by month to guide you through the year with thoughts on beginnings, freedom and transformation. It’s a book that works best in small doses – dip in when you need a jolt of perspective rather than reading cover to cover, unless you want to OD on artistic wisdom by March.

Super Nintendo

Inside the Nintendo dream factory

Just released: video games editor Keza MacDonald traces Nintendo from its 1889 playing card origins to gaming dominance, with rare access to the secretive HQ and interviews with Shigeru Miyamoto (the creator of Mario). She uncovers the philosophy behind Mario, Zelda, and the Wii – a company that prioritises long-term joy over quarterly profits. For anyone who grew up with a controller in hand,this is a love letter.

Socials

Nobody is trying to fix the problems we have in this country. Everyone is trying to make enough money so the problems don’t apply to them anymore.

@SAVoltolin

via Instagram

Media

The rise of industrial software

Read

A sharp, historically grounded look at how AI is turning software from a crafted product into an industrial, disposable commodity – more like junk food than fine dining. Developer Chris Loy argues that while innovation will still drive real value, the coming flood of ‘AI slop’ may swamp our ecosystems with technical debt.

“Large language models are a steam engine moment for software. They collapse the cost of a class of work previously fully dependent on scarce human labour, and in doing so unlock an extraordinary acceleration in output.”

A website to destroy all websites

Read

The Big Platforms have turned a once-playful, creative commons into a joyless content factory.In this beautifully designed essay (the design alone is worth a click!), Henry Desroches adds to the chorus of voices advocating for a more hand-built, home-grown internet to restore autonomy and ownership.

“Instead of turning freely in the HTTP meadows we grow for each other, we go to work: we break our backs at the foundry of algorithmic content as this earnest, naïve, human endeavoring to connect our lives with others is corrupted.”

The realities of being a pop star

Read

I’m so out of touch with pop culture that I didn’t really know who Charli XCX was until I read this Substack essay of hers. She writes with surprising honesty and self‑awareness about the absurd, fun and sometimes dehumanising realities of being a pop star. I wish more celebrities would talk like this – and do it in a format that isn’t just a 30‑second clip.

“Marketing and strategy and packaging and presentation can do it’s best to guide a viewer to the desired outcome but at the end of the day the consumer gets to decide whether a pop star is a symbol of sex, or anarchy or intelligence or whatever else they wish to see.”

You are being misled about renewable energy technology

Watch

A very thorough, long-form (90 minutes!) explainer making the case that solar, wind and EV batteries are far more practical and less environmentally damaging than public discourse suggests. A very nerdy Alec Watson methodically works through energy requirements, material sourcing, land use comparisons (solar versus corn ethanol, for instance), recycling potential, and the ways political and media narratives have systematically misrepresented renewable technologies – often to the point of inversion.

Inspiration

A satisfying roundup of 75 book covers from the last decade that actually earned their real estate.

In his series Homo Mobilis, photographer Martin Roemers explores how vehicles – from delivery bikes to luxury cars – function as powerful symbols of identity, class and cultural values across continents. The series is available as a photobook. Friends of DD enjoy a €5 discount. Become a Friend to access specials like this.

Font of the week: The gorgeous Pristine is a warm, charismatic typeface that bridges Thai and Latin scripts with distinctive teardrop terminals.

Classifieds

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Classifieds are paid ads that support DD and are seen by 38,000 subscribers each week. Book yours here.

Poll

Numbers

80

In 2024, outdoor clothing brand Patagonia sent nearly $80 million to the Holdfast Collective – the philanthropic entity Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard set up when he gave away his company to avoid being a billionaire.

98

Nearly 100 UK newspaper editorials opposed climate action in 2025 – more than double the 46 that supported it, marking the first time in 15 years of analysis that opposition overtook support.

Mood