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Right, the one person (Neo?), has to be able to verify the output. Most of us can’t replace the accountant because we can’t really … replace the accountant. We can replace the accountant’s work, but we can’t replace his/her other work which is knowing if the accounting is right. However, an accountant can replace N other accountants.

One programmer can know if the program is right. So N additional programmers, in that case, can truly be replaced.

I can know the SQL query came back right, I can know the drop down menu looks right, you know what I mean? I can even know if it’s any good. [Person .., ] of Type Y (let’s say Y is “programmer” for now) can be reduced down to 1 in that case (we no longer need the full array of people of a certain type anymore, just the one). Over time we’ll see all different “types” get collapsed down.

by overgard46 minutes ago|

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> One programmer can know if the program is right

I think that's really unlikely on a large software project, or even a medium size one. Mature things usually get big enough that developers specialize in an area. Just as a random example I know a lot about, Unreal Engine has so many incredibly complicated and huge features that expecting even a project manager to know half the features is unlikely, and expecting that a single programmer could maintain it is wild.

You're also making the mistake of thinking developers are interchangeable, or that any given developer can know all of the tech stack. Again with the Unreal Engine example, how many developers understand animation, procedural generation, localization, high end 3d graphics, the math behind physics, gameplay systems, storage systems, consoles.. (I'm probably covering like 5% here)