Debate on how coding agents affect the joy of programming
What happened
On 20 October 2026, Jeremy Scheff wrote about how coding agents affect programmers' work, arguing that they strip puzzle-loving programmers of their core source of enjoyment: programmers once earned high pay and autonomy by solving thorny logic problems, but LLMs can now do that work directly. For programmers who just want to build working systems, the article says, LLMs are a continuing gift; for those who enjoy problem-solving itself, the loss is very real. Discussion so far centres on how coding agents change the experience of the job, with no more specific industry data or follow-up developments yet.
Written by AI from the reports · updated 4 h ago
Timeline
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- Simon WillisonMy obituary for programming
My obituary for programming Jeremy Scheff poignantly captures the key loss caused by coding agents for career programmers who enjoyed the puzzle of developing code: Programming turned into one of the greatest jobs you could imagine. You got paid to work on tricky little logic puzzles. The trickier the puzzle, the more you got paid.
Heat of this event
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