When AI Makes the Mugs, We’ll Build the Hypercubes

A ceramic hypercube becomes a metaphor for how code, like clay, is a malleable medium where non-attachment and iteration matter more than any single artifact. With AI automating commodity coding, software faces its industrial revolution much like pottery did with factories. The result is not the death of craft but a shift toward more meaningful, human-driven, creative work.

Key Points

• Code and clay are both flexible mediums for ideas that demand iterative, non-attached making: things break, you try again.
• Good craftsmanship means being willing to delete and rewrite—implementation is disposable, the idea persists.
• AI marks an industrial revolution for software, automating commodity and boilerplate code.
• Like industrial ceramics didn’t kill pottery, automation won’t kill software craft; it makes human-made work more meaningful.
• Engineers can focus on creative, unconventional problems—the “hypercubes”—while AI produces the “mugs.”

Sentiment

Overall, the sentiment of the Hacker News discussion is overwhelmingly critical and skeptical towards the article's optimistic outlook on AI's impact on software development. Commenters largely disagree with the core analogies and economic predictions, often criticizing the author's perceived privilege and lack of empathy for the practical realities of the profession.

Opposed

• The economic model proposed by the author, where engineers focus on 'hypercubes' (novel, non-templated work) while AI handles 'mugs' (boilerplate), is not economically viable for professionals trying to earn a living; functional 'mugs' are what people need and pay for.
• The core analogy between clay and code is flawed because clay does not require intellect, whereas code fundamentally does.
• The author's preference for 'building things' over 'boilerplate' sounds like a desire to be an executive ordering engineers, rather than an engineer doing the actual work.
• The historical analogy that pottery factories didn't kill the craft and led to thriving ceramics studios is misguided; former factory workers likely didn't transition to these studios, and current studio owners often cannot achieve a full-time income from catering to hobbyists.
• The article is seen as coming from a privileged perspective, lacking empathy for the economic disenfranchisement that widespread AI automation could cause for professional software developers.
• The software profession is often characterized by 'hype-following' and a 'merchant behaviour' that signals and trades in hype, rather than a sound engineering culture that carefully weighs technology trade-offs.