We Were Never Paid to Write Code

Is software engineering dead? Jamie Turner doesn’t think so. In this closing talk from Abstract, the Convex co-founder and CEO shares his perspective on how AI is changing software development. He argues that software engineering is not going away. It is maturing. As AI handles more of the coding, engineers can focus on what to build, how it should work, and who they are building it for. CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 00:49 Jamie takes the stage 02:35 Three epiphanies about AI and software 03:05 Engineering versus building 06:08 What “10x engineer” really means 08:41 Specifications, testing, and guardrails 12:28 Lessons from car manufacturing 14:21 Will there be anything left to build? 18:44 How AI changed Convex adoption 22:35 Why AI creates more opportunities 23:18 The third epiphany 24:03 A founder’s lesson from memory care 27:04 Solve the problem, not the workflow 30:59 Software as a web of trust 31:24 Start with human needs