Sean Grove @ OpenAI makes his pitch to why specifications are more valuable than the code.

There we some key insights that I noted here:

• Code is a Small Part of the Value: The Sean argues that the code you write is only about 10-20% of the value you bring to a project. The other 80-90% comes from structured communication, which includes understanding the problem, planning the solution, and ensuring the final product meets its goals.
• Specifications Capture Intent: A written specification is seen as a more valuable artifact than the code itself because it clearly and unambiguously captures the intent behind a project. Unlike code, which can be a “lossy projection” of an idea, the specification serves as the central document for aligning all stakeholders, both technical and non-technical.
• The Future is Spec Authorship: The video suggests that the ability to write comprehensive, clear, and “executable” specifications will become the most valuable skill in the future. This means a senior developer’s deep understanding of problem domains and their ability to articulate solutions effectively will be more critical than ever. The focus shifts from the artifact of code to the process of defining and achieving the desired outcome.
• Engineering is Problem Solving: The core of engineering is described as “the precise exploration by humans of software solutions to human problems.” The move toward specifications is about creating a unified human encoding (the spec) rather than a disparate machine encoding (the code).

I am getting ready to spin up a new side project and I’m going to do a thing I haven’t done before, writing a really nice specification that captures the intent of the product I am going to build. I’m going to be using a large language model to accelerate my velocity, so the specification will be valuable. This will also allow me to generate marketing artifacts (like landing page), copy, etc with the help of a large language model.

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