Beyond the 8x Productivity Myth: A 40-Year Perspective on Recursive AI and the "Craft" of Engineering (opens in new tab)

Introduction: The Ghost in the Codebase I started my professional journey in 1986. It was the era of Honeywell systems, Commodore 64s, and developing management software in DataFlex on Concurrent-CPM. Back then, "compute" was a luxury; we planned every line of code because a single compilation could take enough time to grab a coffee—or two. Fast forward to 2026. I am reading the latest Anthropic paper, "When AI builds itself". It describes a world where the "doing"—writing code, running exper...