Vol. II Wix Engineering · Conference 2026

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A Treatise, in Three Parts

The End of
Determinism

On Dialogue, Authorship & Taste

by Tom Enden

Page · I Pp. 29

Foreword · About the Author02 / 29

Software Architect · Wix

Tom Enden

In 2018, I gave a talk about software engineering as a philosophical activity.

This is the sequel.

Chapter I · A Confession03 / 29

Last week

I shipped code I don't fully understand.

The Question04 / 29

The question we're all avoiding

If AI writes all the code — what are you here for?

The Paradox05 / 29

And yet —

I was proud of it.

Voice I · Robert C. Martin06 / 29

The craftsmanship guy

Syntax was the scaffolding — not the building.

The Ladder of Abstraction07 / 29

We've been climbing for decades

This is just the latest rung.

IAssembly

IIC

IIIManaged

IVFrameworks

VEnglish

Voice II · Andrej Karpathy08 / 29

Karpathy — the hottest new programming language is English

Three years early

Every previous rung had a gate. This one does not.

Shift I · How we write09 / 29

From monologue, to dialogue.

Before

You and the blinking cursor.

Now

You and someone on the other side.

2,400 Years Earlier · Athens10 / 29

The Socratic method

I can only make them think.

Not every chat is a dialogue11 / 29

Not every chat is a dialogue.

Not this —

"Make it work."

"Now make it faster."

"Ship it."

This —

"Why that approach?"

"What are we assuming?"

"What breaks at 10×?"

Part Two12 / 29

Shift II · Authorship

Who wrote this?

§2

Exhibit A · Version Control13 / 29

$ git blame src/auth/handler.ts

a3f7b2c1 (Tom Enden 2026-04-10) 1| export async function validate(

e91dc4f8 (Tom Enden 2026-04-12) 2| const decoded = await jwt.verify(

7c2ab09e (Tom Enden 2026-04-14) 3| if (!decoded.sub) throw new Auth...

git blame points at you. But does it?

Roland Barthes · 196714 / 29

Roland Barthes · 1967

“ A text is a tissue of quotations.

— The Death of the Author

The Fiction Collapses15 / 29

And so —

There is no original.

There never was. You're just noticing it now.

The Real Question16 / 29

If authorship was always distributed —

So who owns this?

Vercel · Agent Responsibly17 / 29

Vercel Engineering

“ Would you be comfortable owning a production incident tied to this pull request?

Same tool · Different relationship18 / 29

Same tool. Different relationship.

Relying —

The agent wrote it.
Tests passed. Ship it.
No mental model.

Leveraging —

You own the outcome.
You know how it behaves.
You'd stand behind it.

The Thesis · Part Two19 / 29

Authorship is distributed.

Ownership is not.

Someone stands behind this. That someone is you.

Part Three20 / 29

Shift III · What remains

What remains.

§3

Voice III · Greg Brockman · OpenAI21 / 29

What remains

It comes down to taste.

The Pushback22 / 29

Someone in this room is thinking —

Isn't taste subjective?

Taste is subjective?23 / 29

Taste is subjective.

Nobody actually believes that24 / 29

Taste is subjective.

Miró — Soirée snob chez la princesse — Miró — *Soirée snob chez la princesse*

Taste is real. And learnable.

Voice IV · Paul Graham25 / 29

The moat moves

When building is cheap, the differentiator is what you choose to make.

Taste recognizes · Judgment commits26 / 29

The model produces. It cannot choose.

A thousand solutions — only you know which one is right.

That's judgment. The choice is the work now.

Closing · The Job Now27 / 29

Dialogue · Ownership · Taste

The code got easier. The questions got harder.

That's the job now.

Postscript · A Confession, Redux28 / 29

By the way —

Who made this presentation?

Fin.29 / 29

Wix Engineering Conference · 2026

Thank you.

Tom Enden

This presentation was made in dialogue with AI. The irony is intentional.

The End ofDeterminism

Tom Enden

I shipped code I don't fully understand.

If AI writes all the code — what are you here for?

I was proud of it.

This is just the latest rung.

From monologue, to dialogue.

Not every chat is a dialogue.

Not this —

This —

Who wrote this?

There is no original.

So who owns this?

Same tool. Different relationship.

What remains.

Isn't taste subjective?

Taste is subjective.

Taste is subjective.

A thousand solutions — only you know which one is right.

Who made this presentation?

Thank you.

The End of
Determinism