
No-Code and Low-Code Software Is a Disruptor You Should Pay Attention To - ecliptik
https://www.inc.com/soren-kaplan/why-no-code-low-code-software-is-industry-disruptor-you-should-pay-attention-to.html
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scottlocklin
This is definitely an underappreciated thing. There is no reason an awful lot
of programmy stuff can't be automated away using gui doodads that morons can
use. The entire UI profession of hand coding up HTML and javascript on an
electron (or web; whatever) app is a total make-work program: this problem was
solved decades ago with drag and drop gui tooling. Most of EC2 type stuff
could be drag and drop; drag and drop works fine on other platforms.

Something like Labview applied to common devops workflows could be an
extinction level event for a lot of people on HN. People have no idea how bad
interfacing equipment to the outside world was before Labview. I think the
only reason tech like this is kept out of the current year is the popularity
of open source software. The first company to adopt it will slay on labor
costs.

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mywittyname
This has been the case for a while. For lack of a better term, I call it the
Word Press Effect, where a less-technical person can put together a functional
PoC that makes money.

Eventually, they hit the limits of their technical skills and they need to
hire talent to expand their business. This is good for programmers, IMHO,
because companies seem to be much more willing to pay when they have a
business entirely dependent upon some software. It's still totally possible to
make a good living consulting on WordPress sites.

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metalliqaz
> Instead of taking weeks or months to develop a custom application, it can be
> done in a few hours or days.

In other words, "pile up massive amounts of technical debt"

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jdjsjsbshb
I mean, so what though? I feel like we complain about technical debt often
without acknowledging that the point of taking on debt, traditionally, is to
capture potential growth. Sure it'll be a hassle to be the guy who has to
handle the eventual revamp, but that's just a reason for that guy to ask for
more money. At the point of turning a week into hours you're playing a totally
different game than you were before.

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JohnFen
> that's just a reason for that guy to ask for more money.

It sounds like you're arguing that technical debt is no big deal because you
can leave for greener pastures before the bill for that debt comes due. Am I
misunderstanding you here?

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Havoc
I work at a non-IT place & am seeing these types of low/no code automation
attempts first hand. It's equal parts inspiring and terrifying to see.

Inspiring because they are actually getting stuff done.

Terrifying because they lack all the basic caution programmers learn over
time. (Don't test in prod etc)

Nor are the safety rails programmers assume are there necessarily in place in
non-IT shops. e.g. Roll back mistake with version control

Interesting times ahead

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shaftway
I've seen this, and it's horrific.

It was 2008, and I worked for a large investment bank (think in the Goldman
Sachs echelon). I was on a transition team moving risk analysis for $1bn in
synthetic CDO assets from Excel spreadsheets to a formal system.

There was zero documentation. Formulas were not internally consistent. Their
version of version control was saving a new copy of the spreadsheet every day.
Their version of day-to-day analysis was copying tabs with a specific naming
scheme so that the macros would pick up yesterday's data properly.

Have you ever seen a spreadsheet generate XML? Shell out to a command line
program? Import the XML that command line program generated? Generate a CSV
file? And then FTP that CSV file to a central reporting system?

I have, and it haunts me to this day.

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Havoc
haha yes exactly that.

Finance crowd with VBA macros can be daunting once they've built an edifice
that is as unstable as it is mission critical.

Noobs armed with RPA point & shoot cannons isn't far behind. Only a matter of
time before that ends in a self-inflicted data leak.

