Coders End, From Typers to Thinkers
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AI-Assisted CodingSoftware DevelopmentProgramming Philosophy
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AI-Assisted Coding
Software Development
Programming Philosophy
The article 'Coders End, from Typers to Thinkers' discusses the impact of AI on coding, sparking a debate among commenters about the role of human coders and the value of coding as an art form.
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Sep 15, 2025 at 5:54 AM EDT
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> Chrome Extension Rewrite: Finally, I rewrote the element selector of the Chrome extension (the one that lets you select/pointer elements in the browser) the “traditional” way, by hand. Why? Because I realized that my struggles to explain it to AI were actually a problem of abstraction. Once I fixed that, the result was clean, solid, and perfectly ready for future iterations — this time with AI. I realized that getting these abstractions right was writing the spec. And that’s the kind of work architects do.
There is absolutely no reason to not think AI companies aren't doing the same. Dial in the accuracy so that each tier is only so useful, constantly and subtlety encouraging you to pay a little more for just a few more queries because "the next prompt will make it work, I'm sure this time!"
It is a terrible mistake that some people have come to believe that code is only as useful as its final executable result, and not the art of expressing logic and meaning within a computer system purely on its own merits.
Infact it feels like one of the few books to change my perspective on life.
I love love love coding. When I'm done with work, and I have time between family stuff, I code to relax!
If I have a fun project, I could easily code from when I wake until I go to sleep, and have before having a kid.
It's a pure joy second only to family
One point is that I can't see how, even with the most (not yet existing) AI to "write code" this can allow me to enter and stay in the flow, the mental state where nothing else exists than the creative flow in my mind, and hours fly by without me even noticing. If the AI is like a smart co-worker and my job is to sit there and explain.. one, there will be no flow, and two, there will be no fun. I'm not doing that.
There has been no discernible augmentation on a programmer's skills with these "tools". Zero, none, zilch.
Stop it.
You are making noise in a profession which a single mistake takes the "working" to "not working".
I swear the whole West's economic model is hyping bullshit to the uninitiated and make it seem plausible enough to either buy in whatever their selling or just plain self-satisfying "look at me I got a blog and writing code is challenging so here are some random ramblings about architecture springled with startupy vibes".
Petition to block "AI" stuff in this site for - at least - year.
The problem is, said people, are not coming to the table with stuff of substance. Its just bold claims with nothing to back it up.
This would have been a great place to stop if you wanted to avoid accusations of hypocrisy.
If there's any real truth to be found, it's somewhere between your opinion and OP's, but your righteous dogmatic opposition is just as suspect.
Upvote posts you like, don't whine that posts you don't like shouldn't exist.
Coding is an iterative process, regardless of whether you're handcrafting the code or using AI -- you need to move your thoughts / code / prompts from your head to the computer. You have to use the keyboard to do this. You have to do this over and over again, interleaving thinking with typing, and if you're fumbling for the mouse or smashing those arrow keys, your thinking is blocked.
That's true for most people
Indeed, it is good to be able to read F* code.
So not sure why the author does suggest to be Typer and Thinker at same time. Thinking in Types(and categories) composes well with traditional logical thinking imho.
This way you get to experience the job of a senior principal solution architect: thinking about big ideas, and letting the engineering workforce build it and trying to make a square enter a hole…
Irony apart, been using on and off claude code for 3 months, tech is crazy already but… pretty sure there is no real acceleration (time spent dreaming and prompting count don’t get fooled), and the feeling of accomplishement to implement a feature is gone for me. So maybe i’d rather enjoy doing the tech myself and only use it as a very powerful stack overflow like q&a
I'd much rather have junior developers follow my direction. That way I know they are learning, and can be more creative in how they approach their solution.