Writing on his blog on 14th September 2026, Simon Willison shared a quotation from Laurie Voss, drawn from a piece titled 'We are all Product Engineers now.' In the quoted passage, Voss argues that 'the cost of writing code collapsed, and the cost of reviewing, fixing and operating it is following.' Voss assumes that trend continues to completion. According to Voss, what remains of software work is 'finding out what people actually want, defining it precisely, and making it pleasant to use.' Voss states that this cost is incurred per piece of software and 'doesn't transfer.' The argument continues that as the amount of software 'goes to infinity, which it will because there's no ceiling on demand,' the cost of understanding and defining what users need 'becomes the whole job.' The excerpt is presented as a single quotation collected by Willison rather than a full article; the reasoning above reflects Voss's stated view as quoted, not independent findings. No supporting data or metrics accompany the quotation in the source excerpt provided.
- Quotation from Laurie Voss, posted by Simon Willison on 14th September 2026
- Voss's claim: code-writing cost has collapsed, and reviewing/fixing/operating costs are following
- The remaining work, per Voss, is defining what users want and making software pleasant to use
What it means for you
This is an opinion, not an event, but it's a useful frame: if AI keeps making code cheap to produce, the hard and valuable part of building software becomes figuring out what people actually need and making it easy to use. For a small business, that means the bottleneck is shifting away from 'can we build it' toward 'do we understand the problem well enough to describe it clearly.'
Try this
Next time you scope a tool or feature — whether you're building it or hiring someone — write down in plain language exactly what the user is trying to accomplish and how you'll know it worked, before anyone touches code.
Who should care
Anyone commissioning custom software, small-business owners considering AI-built tools, and product or ops people who write requirements.
Skip this if
You don't build or commission software, or you just want to know about a concrete product or price change — this is a viewpoint, not news you can act on today.
Sources: Simon Willison — read the original