A Third Option

I asked AI to build a feature with one constraint:

No extra dependencies.

I expected it to say:

"Okay, then we can't do it."

Instead it replied:

> "I can write a tiny zip encoder by hand."

By hand.

Interesting choice of words from something that doesn't actually have hands.

The funny part is that it wasn't joking.

A few years ago, the choice was simple:

Use a library.

Or spend hours writing your own.

Now there's a third option:

Generate a tiny implementation that solves exactly one problem.

AI isn't just making coding faster.

It's changing what's worth building in the first place.

(I'm still waiting to find out whose hands it was planning to use.)