JFC. Another tech writer I used to respect who is now posting about how the future is now fantastically wonderful and wide-open because anyone can create an app to do whatever they want.

Because, you know—he built some random thing with a few prompts on one of these vibe-coding products.

I just don’t understand how anyone who has paid even the slightest bit of attention to the tech industry for the last thirty years can look at any of this stuff these huge companies are cranking out and think “Yeah, it’s gonna stay cheap and liberating and we will all be able to set ourselves free to experience utopia by embracing it!”

There’s an argument to be had as to whether, absent all of the cultural and economic forces that have shaped and which drive the tech industry, the products that industry builds are good or bad in the abstract. But there is no way any sentient, responsibly aware adult should be looking at what has happened to basically every part of the tech economy and not understand that sooner or later, the investors want their money and all of this awesome stuff you think you’re able to do right now will dry up and turn into data-mining and advertising.