AI Refines Software Development
The Business Case
is Never Fire
Jon Leahy | Staff Software Engineer | Pismo/Visa
Personal exploration — not an official initiative
From Fire to Dinner — Presentation 1: The Reframe
THE BUSINESS CASE
IS NEVER FIRE
Jon Leahy | Staff Software Engineer | Pismo/Visa
Personal exploration — not an official initiative
Fifteen minutes.
That's all I'm asking.
From Fire to Dinner
A Four-Part Series · ~15 mins each
1
The Reframe
← You are here
2
The Method
3
The Kitchen
4
The Bet
Jon | Staff Engineer | Veteran
Software development has become painful.
Frameworks. Dependencies. Config files.
The joy of creating
has been buried under complexity.
1980-something
A dark room.
Green text.
Black screen.
No mouse.
No windows.
Nothing friendly.
10 PRINT "HELLO"
HELLO
I felt like...
a WIZARD.
I've been chasing that feeling ever since.
The magic got buried.
Frameworks.
Frameworks
Dependencies
Config files
Build systems
[Your idea... somewhere]
The job changed.
The joy of creation became paperwork.
And the magic was gone.
Until now.
AI cuts through the layers.
Yes, it writes the code.
But that was never the hard part.
The thinking is still yours.
Like wizards.
✨ ✨
For the past 18 months...
125
personal projects
...than in my previous 20 years combined.
Not for skill.
Not for thinking.
More hands.
More features.
More sprints completed.
Software isn't a factory.
We're not building pyramids anymore.
We need skilled thinkers
who know what to build.
They think AI is the story.
FIRE
Imagine you're a caveman.
You discover fire.
Warmth
Light
Cooked food
Protection
Nobody asked for fire.
"I have a business case for discovering fire"
The business case is never fire.
People warm. Food safe. Light in the dark.
DINNER
Think about code like salt.
Nobody wants salt.
They want the change in taste.
You need a salt shaker.
Just enough.
Tests become the recipe.
Specs become the ingredients.
Code is just the cooking.
The spec is the asset. The tests are the asset.
The code can be regenerated.
The thinking can't.
Blueprint Verified Delivery.
BVD
Stop thinking about fire.
Start thinking about Dinner.
The business case is DINNER.