I’m talking with my good friend David Pierce, Vergecast co-host and The Verge’s editor-at-large, about something he spends an ungodly amount of time thinking and writing about: software. Scores of new workplace apps are cropping with clever metaphors to try to make us work differently. Sometimes that works… and sometimes it really, really doesn’t. And it feels like the addition of AI to the mix will accelerate the pace of experimentation here in pretty radical ways. Links: Why software is eating the world | Wall Street Journal (2011) Mailchimp CEO Rania Succar on why email makes sense for Intuit | The Verge Why would anyone make a website in 2023? | The Verge Wix CEO Avishai Abrahami isn’t worried AI will kill the web | The Verge Figma CEO Dylan Field is optimistic about AI | The Verge We don’t sell saddles here | Stewart Butterfield (2014) The CEO of Zoom wants AI clones in meetings | The Verge Dropbox CEO Drew Houston wants you to embrace AI | The Verge Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Xander Adams. Our supervising producer is Liam James. The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Hello, and welcome to Decoder. I'm Nilay Patel, editor-in-chief of The Verge, and Decoder is my show about big ideas and other problems. Today, I'm talking to my good friend, David Pearce, who's my co-host on The Verge cast and The Verge's editor at large. And we're talking about something that David spends, honestly, too much time thinking and writing about, software.
Specifically, we're talking about the software you use at work, the stuff you like or maybe just tolerate and use every day, the stuff you probably hate and try to avoid using at all costs, and the stuff you love and hate because your job revolves around using it all day long. It's fair to say that businesses of all kinds changed radically when software entered the office.
That's the foundation of the famous Marc Andreessen quote, software is eating the world. And now it seems like it's all about to change again as AI automates more and more of that software. At least, that's if you believe all the CEOs who have come onto Coder in the last year telling me that's what's about to happen.
These tools are all usually lumped together in a big bucket we call enterprise software, but there are often meaningful overlaps with the popular productivity tools many of us use in our regular lives as well. So first, I wanted David's help in just defining it all. Then I wanted to talk about how it's designed, and how that design shapes how we work every day in subtle and powerful ways.
That's everything from the big familiar bundles like Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workplace all the way down to familiar single tools like Slack. But as you'll hear David explain, we're starting to see scores of new apps crop up to handle very specific use cases built around clever metaphors and interesting new interfaces that try and rewire our brains to make us work differently.
hopefully faster, more efficiently, and lately, more remotely. Sometimes that works, and sometimes it really, really does not. Something is changing about software at work, and I often find the best way to understand the future is to take a moment and consider the present. Okay, David Pierce, Software at Work. Here we go. David Pierce, welcome to Decoder.
Thank you. It's an honor.
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