Summary

The author argues that modern software development is built on a pyramid of accumulated abstractions, and while LLMs excel at building atop this pyramid, true competitive advantage lies in discovering a new software architecture. Drawing inspiration from biological cells and Smalltalk's message-passing paradigm, he proposes the 'Ask Protocol' — where software objects negotiate communication through natural language queries handled by LLMs, eliminating rigid APIs and schemas.

Key Insight

Instead of stacking more layers atop software's existing pyramid of abstractions, LLMs enable a new architecture where autonomous objects negotiate communication through natural language, much like biological cells exchange chemical signals.

Spicy Quotes (click to share)

• 7

  Software development over the last 60+ years has been the equivalent of pyramid building. We see the great pyramids today and marvel at their scale, but their shape is a necessary shape because the people at that time had not yet discovered architecture.

• 8

  The new version of this is that software grows in complexity until its components can't fit inside an LLM context window. I call this The Window Tax.

• 5

  Natural language succeeds where schemas failed because it is inherently flexible. An LLM can handle ambiguity, paraphrase, and partial information in a way that WSDL negotiation never could.

• 6

  With LLMs we have the ability now to start from a new foundation and quickly build a competitive system without the baggage of today's software. Something that is much smaller, more efficient, and far more capable.

• 5

  Two objects that have never seen each other before, cooperating through natural language negotiation. Just like cells reading chemical signals on each other's surfaces.

Tone

visionary