We are already seeing the seeds. Some AI image generators generate watermarked results unless you pay. Some chatbots give vague, circular answers to force you to ask more questions (consuming more tokens, generating more revenue).
There is a small, beautiful counter-movement happening in the margins. Developers are building —tools that are done. Finished. You buy version 1.0, and unless there is a security patch, version 1.0 is the last version you ever need. cynical software
Let us walk through the daily landscape of cynical software. You interact with these patterns constantly. You have likely normalized them. We are already seeing the seeds
To prevent cynicism from turning into a "woodchipper" for careers, developers and organizations must find balance. There is a small, beautiful counter-movement happening in
Here is the cruel irony. Software developers are not inherently evil. Most engineers want to build elegant, honest systems. But they work in organizations driven by metrics like Monthly Active Users (MAU) and Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).