Legacy code is Software the Developers don’t wanna touch. It’s the code that industry uses to run the world and it is fit for its current purpose but developers find it hard to extend and that’s because legacy software is often written in a way that doesn’t support future changes, not because it can’t but because it’s never been a priority, and so people haven’t focused on it.
I have.
This is how I built my career, on discovering ways of more efficient and effective ways of building software. I happened upon this by accident. I was trying to discover better ways of helping software developers understand and learn new technologies. I had the good fortune of being exposed to some radical new concepts in software, such as design patterns and Extreme Programming. These ideas represent solutions to problems that had plagued our industry for decades.
At first, I was skeptical. But as I tested out the ideas that I was learning in the industry, I found that they save my clients enormous amounts of time and effort when building software, and so I built a thriving career as a consultant, helping many of the top companies in the world build more maintainable software.
I felt like this was a good thing for me to do in my life. But I knew it was time for a change and I already thought about taking these ideas and bringing them more into public awareness.
And then ChatGPT came along and everything changed for me. Remember, I’m an old guy. I remember seeing the first HeathKit computers, Atari 800s, and PCs, and how they revolutionized our world.
The Internet turned the PC from a fancy ‘recipe organizer’ to a communication device that connected us to each other. ChatGPT is the next step in this journey.
But just because it is the next step doesn’t mean it isn’t a quantum leap! I remember that feeling I had when I first saw a microcomputer, and then when I first saw the Internet. I was hooked. As soon as I started using web browsers on dialup, I saw the need for an Internet accelerator, so I created MicroSurfer. This little tool let you collect links you wanted to explore from web pages that were downloaded in the background and cached, so when you’re ready to see them, they would appear instantly.
MicroSurfer was featured in Newsweek, Fortune, and a range of computer magazines. It was the darling of Download.com and appeared on their homepage for nearly a decade. It was the most popular web accelerator on the market at the time. I only lost a million dollars. My competition lost much more than that. I call it my million-dollar MBA. It was a wild ride and I learned a lot.
I have that same feeling from working with ChatGPT.
Yes, AI will disrupt everything. And isn’t it about time? I see it as a force for good. And humanity needs some good right now. That isn’t to say there aren’t dangers. Fire is good but it is dangerous. But we have found ways of mitigating the dangers of fire and it is a vital part of our culture. I hope we can assimilate the good in AI and use it for the good of us all. That’s what am working towards.
