The old trust signals are on life support
Signals we used: Well-written prose, thorough documentation, tidy repositories, passing CI, lots of tests, good overall presentation.
Producing them implied: time, attention, familiarity with the work, dedication to a quality product.
What has changed: Generative tools can produce the outward signals cheaply, which means the information content drops for everyone.
- Arfon Smith
Where does the rigor go? Research software and the future of trustworthy science.
The Software Engineering Identity Crisis
"We’re moving from producers to managers of AI systems, from detailed implementation to expressing intent, from delivery to discovery through rapid experimentation, and from content creation to knowledge curation. Our role is evolving to blend creation with orchestration, building with oversight.
Overall, I think it’s fair to say that the nature of our professional identity is changing at its core."