A Scottish football manager once said, “Some people think football is more important than life. But they are wrong. It’s much more important than that.” When intelligence becomes a utility, the ability to ACT on it becomes everything. In today’s software world, Agency is more important than anything else!
The Quote That Nailed It
A year ago, Garry Tan put it perfectly:
“Intelligence is on tap now so agency is even more important.”
Andrej Karpathy expanded on this to explain what “Agency” means. I could not agree more. If I was speaking AWS LP speak (Leadership Principles) it would be “Bias for Action” and “Deliver Results” and “Invent and Simplify” and “Customer Obscession” all rolled into one word.
Andrej coined the term “Vibe Coding” for the process of building software with AI. In the hands of someone who knows how to build, this isn’t laziness. It’s leverage. I prefer to call it “AI-boosted building.”
But the tool is not the most important thing. A table saw is vastly more powerful than and hand saw if you are building a house. The most important thing is to ACTUALLY BUILD THINGS. And the AIs make that possible today in ways we never imagined.
I’m Coding Again
Here’s what changed for me:
- I’m coding again. A lot. It’s fast enough that I actually have time now, even as someone who manages teams and sits in meetings
- It’s incredibly fun. You have no idea. The dopamine hit of building something in an afternoon that would have taken weeks? Unmatched
- I’m making things again. I’ve always had side-hustles, but now I am really building something tangible (stay tuned!)
Coming Soon!
Just a teaser, wink-wink. Stay tuned!
My New Flow
The way I work now is inverted from how I learned to code (which was usually prototype first):
- Write careful specs - with AI help to sharpen the thinking
- Then plans - what components, what interfaces, what edge cases
- Then tests - define the behavior you want before you build it and clearly specify those tests
- Code comes last - almost an afterthought
- Iterate! - seeing results quickly let’s me realize when my specs and/or design was flawed
And here’s the kicker: if I have comprehensive tests that cover the behaviors I care about, I might not even read the code.
I’m not alone. Karpathy said it too - when you have good test coverage and the tests pass, the implementation details matter less. If something breaks, you fix it fast.
The Caveats
This isn’t universal (yet) and won’t be for a while:
- Existing codebases make this harder. Greenfield is easy mode. Legacy systems require more human inspection.
- Tech debt can be a dealbreaker. Some codebases are so tangled that AI tools choke on them. Until they don’t.
- Human oversight scales with risk. A prototype? Let it rip. A payment system? You’d better be reading that code. A pacemaker? Line by line.
There is still no substitute for good Engineering practices and solid judgement about fit for purpose, quality and stability. We are talking about outsourcing the coding tasks to the AI - not the whole thing. You are still responsible for your own product!
This Trend Is Accelerating
The shift isn’t hypothetical. It’s happening now, fast.
Fortune reported that 100% of code at some AI labs is now AI-written. Ars Technica found that developers acknowledge these tools work - and that’s exactly what worries them.
The tools work. And the question isn’t whether you’re using them. If you aren’t, you may be suffering soon. The real question is WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THEM?
Agency. Are you taking advantage of this and actually BUILDING things at speed?
Agency Is Everything
The most valuable trait right now isn’t knowledge. It’s not even knowing how to code in the traditional sense. It’s the ability to get things done. To understand problems and make a solution. To ship. To build. To iterate. The cost of “trying something” is near zero now. Even in your spare time.
Channel Nike: Just Do It
Just Do It!!!
What’s stopping you from building? Builders build. The intelligence is there for the taking. The future belongs to those who will see, understand, and act. It’s always been about Agency, but it’s tipping fast all the way to Agency.
Build something today!