A software developer reflects on how AI-generated code is transforming software development from a stonemason model—incrementally building code line by line—to a carpenter model where developers focus on designing system structure, specifications, and verification rather than writing code directly. This shift requires developers to think more like product managers and true software engineers, emphasizing system design and rapid feedback loops over manual coding.
Software engineers often guess when sizing databases and thread pools, but queueing theory provides a mathematical approach to predict system behavior. By understanding arrival rates, service times, and utilization metrics, developers can find the optimal balance between performance and resource costs, avoiding the exponential wait time increases that occur as utilization approaches capacity.