The Shape of the Thing
www.oneusefulthing.org- Category
- Education
- Pricing
- Free
- Type
- ARTICLE
- Builder
- @emollick
- Added
- Jul 21, 2026
About
An essay by Ethan Mollick analyzing the current state of AI, arguing that we've entered an era of managing AI agents rather than working alongside them. It explores exponential AI capability gains, radical new organizational structures like AI-only 'software factories,' and the looming reality of recursive self-improvement.
Why it made the leaderboard
It gives practicing engineers a concrete mental model for the transition from working alongside AI to orchestrating fleets of agents, grounded in a real 'software factory' case study where humans no longer write or review code.
Tags
aiessayai-agentsrecursive-self-improvementfuture-of-workexponential-growth
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