In today's episode of DecoderI'm talking to my good friend David Pierce, co-host of The Vergecast and general editor of The edge. We're talking about something that David honestly spends too much time thinking and writing about: software.
In particular, we are talking about the software you use at work. Those are the things you like (or maybe just tolerate) and use every day, the things you hate and try to avoid using at all costs, and the things in between that you love. and I hate because your job completely revolves around wearing it all day.
The business changed radically when software entered the office: it is the basis of Marc Andreessen now famous quote“Software is eating the world.” And everything could be about to change dramatically again, as ai increasingly automates that software. At least, that is Yeah Do you believe all the CEOs that appear? Decoder say that's what's about to happen.
Typically, all of these tools are called business software, but there are also often major overlaps with popular productivity tools that many of us use in our daily lives. First, I wanted to ask David to help me define everything. Then I wanted to talk about the state of all of these industries right now and how these tools shape the way we work every day in subtle and powerful ways.
We're talking about familiar tools like Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, and Slack, of course. But as you'll hear David explain, we've started to see dozens of new applications emerge to handle very specific use cases. These programs are creating clever metaphors and interesting new interfaces to try to rewire our brains and make us work differently, presumably faster, more efficiently and, nowadays, more remotely.
Sometimes that works… and sometimes it really doesn't. And it looks like adding ai to the mix will accelerate the pace of experimentation here in pretty radical ways. Something is changing, and I often find that the best way to understand the future is to take a moment to consider the present.
We talk about many articles and interviews in this episode, including:
- Why software is eating the world | The Wall Street Journal (2011)
- Rania Succar, CEO of Mailchimp, explains why email makes sense for Intuit | The edge
- Why would anyone want to create a website in 2023? | The edge
- Wix CEO Avishai Abrahami is not worried about ai destroying the web | The edge
- Figma CEO Dylan Field is optimistic about ai | The edge
- We don't sell saddles here | Stewart Butterfield (2014)
- Zoom CEO wants ai clones in meetings | The edge
- Dropbox CEO Drew Houston wants you to embrace ai | The edge
Decoder with Nilay Patel /
A podcast from The Verge about big ideas and other problems.
