The illusion of “no backend”

Modern product pitches go like this:

“The frontend talks directly to Firebase / Supabase / X-as-a-Service and we’re done.”

No servers.
No infra.
No backend team.

It works — until it doesn’t.

Because what you removed wasn’t the backend.
You removed the person who understands it.

What people think backend devs do

From the outside, backend work looks like:

“So why not let tools handle it?”

Because that’s like saying:

“Why do we need pilots? The plane mostly flies itself.”

Backend developers don’t just write APIs.

They:

When things go wrong — and they always do —
backend devs are the ones who know where to look.

It changed them.

Yes, infra is easier.
Yes, you can ship faster.

But now someone has to understand:

Congrats — that “someone” is still a backend developer.

Sure.

Until:

Backend exists because trusting the client is a bad idea.

Always has been.

AI is great at:

AI is terrible at:

AI doesn’t replace backend developers.
It just removes the boring parts — the parts we never liked anyway.

If you’re building:

Maybe not.

If you’re building:

Then yes.
More than ever.

Because tools abstract complexity —
they don’t eliminate it.

They just hide it…
until it matters.

The backend isn’t disappearing.

It’s becoming invisible.

And the more invisible it becomes,
the more valuable the people are who actually understand it.