a16z Podcast

The 1000x Developer

Steph Smith and Amjad Masad

Posted February 16, 2023

A small minority – likely less than 1% – of the world can code. Yet it is also widely known that the skillset tends to yield outsized returns, with developers generating some of the highest paying salaries out there.

But the field is quickly shifting, especially with the advent of wide-scale AI. In this podcast, we get to chat with Amjad Masad, founder of Replit, about these foundational shifts.

We cover how Replit has integrated AI into its platform and the implications on both current and future developers. It’s easier than ever to learn to code, but is it still worthwhile? Listen in to find out.

Show Notes

00:00 – Introduction

02:04 – What is Replit?

04:15 – Stories behind Replit

11:10 – The software hero’s journey

13:09 – Making coding fun

15:58 – AI powering software

19:37 – Training your own models

22:36 – Building UX around AI

24:16 – The developer landscape

26:23 – The 1000x engineer

30:40 – Should you still learn to code?

34:41 – What does AI enable?

40:54 – Developing on mobile

43:24 – A software labor market

45:53 – Differentiating a marketplace

48:23 – Building new market dynamics

50:45 – Looking ahead