Summary

Armin Ronacher argues that in an era of AI-accelerated development and instant gratification, we're losing sight of the fact that the most valuable things in software — trust, community, quality — require sustained time and commitment to build. He draws an analogy to growing trees: no amount of speed or money can replicate what decades of patient cultivation produce. He critiques the startup and open source culture of disposable projects, the removal of beneficial friction like compliance processes and code reviews, and the paradox that time-saving tools leave everyone with less time as competition absorbs every freed hour. He concludes by reflecting on his own two decades of open source maintenance as evidence that showing up consistently is what creates lasting value.

Key Insight

The most valuable things in software — trust, community, and quality — are fundamentally products of sustained human commitment over time, and no amount of AI-powered speed can substitute for that patience.

Spicy Quotes (click to share)

• 4

  As much as we can speed up code generation, the real defining element of a successful company or an Open Source project will continue to be tenacity.

• 7

  There's a feeling that all the things that create friction in your life should be automated away. When in fact many times the friction, or that things just take time, is precisely the point.

• 6

  Increasingly, I also feel like this means that the shelf life of much of the software being created today can be measured only in months rather than decades, and the relationships alongside.

• 8

  We all sell each other the idea that we're going to save time, but that is not what's happening. Any time saved gets immediately captured by competition.

• 3

  It turns some idea or plan into a commitment and a commitment into something that can shelter and grow other people.

• 7

  Nobody is going to mass-produce a 50-year-old oak. And nobody is going to conjure trust, or quality, or community out of a weekend sprint.

• 5

  I actually find it very hard to create quality when we are quickly commoditizing software, and the machines make it so appealing.

Tone

reflective, opinionated