AI Makes Building Software Easy, But the Hard Question Remains: Should You?

A software industry veteran reflects on how AI-powered tools like Lovable, Bolt, Replit, and Claude Code have drastically lowered the barrier to building software, enabling even non-technical users to create apps within hours. Historically, the difficulty of building acted as a natural filter, forcing teams to carefully weigh whether a project was worth pursuing before committing resources. With that friction now largely removed, the critical question of whether something should be built is increasingly being skipped in favor of simply building because it is quick and easy. The author warns that every piece of software created — from internal tools to weekend projects — eventually becomes someone's long-term responsibility to maintain and update. As AI accelerates creation, the piece argues that the most important skill is not the ability to build, but the wisdom to decide what truly deserves to be built.