--- title: "The Conductor Developer" url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-conductor-developer-iiscjyirl source_url: https://martinfowler.com/rachels-ramblings/conductor-developer.html type: article source: "Martin Fowler" published: 2026-07-31T14:02:01.184Z updated: 2026-07-31T14:18:30.842Z tags: ["productivity", "ai-agents"] reading_time: 5 upvotes: 1 comments: 0 language: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Conductor Developer **[Martin Fowler](https://daily.dev/sources/mafo)** · 5 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary AI is shifting the bottleneck in software development from coding speed to human attention. The best developers are no longer spending their days in deep flow states writing code — they're orchestrating multiple AI agents simultaneously, much like a conductor directing an orchestra. This parallels the experience of executives who manage many parallel workstreams and must learn to protect their attention, manage energy, and make decisions with incomplete information. The author argues that engineering careers need to be redesigned around these new demands, as human attention — not technical skill execution — becomes the scarce resource in software delivery. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Conductors to Orchestrators: The Future of Agentic Coding](https://daily.dev/posts/conductors-to-orchestrators-the-future-of-agentic-coding-aozxk13oy) · Elevate · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [With AI Agents, Attention is the New Bottleneck](https://daily.dev/posts/with-ai-agents-attention-is-the-new-bottleneck-jnhvxcrbc) · Atomic Spin · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#productivity](https://daily.dev/tags/productivity), [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-conductor-developer-iiscjyirl)