The Return of the Monolith
The microservices fever dream is breaking. Teams are rediscovering that network calls are not free, and that distributed consistency is harder than a large codebase. This isn't a technical regression; it's a recalibration of complexity.
"Write-Only" Codebases
With AI code generation, the volume of code committed is skyrocketing, but the percentage of code read and understood by humans is plummeting. We are building systems we cannot maintain without the tools that built them.
The Death of "Per Seat" Pricing
SaaS pricing is quietly shifting from "per seat" to "per usage" or "per outcome." This anticipates a future where AI agents do the work, and the number of human "seats" declines drastically.
The "Founder Mode" Distortion
A new wave of leadership advice encourages "details-first" micromanagement. While valid for founders, it's being weaponized by middle managers to break chain-of-command without having the founder's context.
Local-First is becoming Local-Only
Privacy concerns and cloud costs are driving a push not just for local-first sync, but for local-only processing. The "cloud" is becoming a backup drive, not the computer.
Note: These symbols are probabilistic, not deterministic.