The End of Understanding: Why Good Abstractions Matter

AI is helping us build software faster than we can understand it. As that comprehension gap widens, more responsibility falls on the people designing the APIs and systems we rely on. In his opening talk at Abstract, Convex co-founder and CTO James Cowling makes the case for good abstractions: interfaces that make complex systems simpler to use and easier to trust. He explores how thoughtful design helps both humans and coding agents build software that can scale without becoming impossible to maintain, and why engineers remain responsible for what they ship, even when they didn’t write every line. Recorded at Abstract, Convex’s conference for humans who care about the art of software.