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A developer with 28 years of experience shares their critical perspective on AI-assisted programming tools. While LLMs handle simple tasks adequately, they fail on complex problems and create unmaintainable code. The trial-and-error feedback loop with AI agents removes the learning journey and problem-solving satisfaction that makes programming rewarding, replacing it with frustration over debugging AI-generated code without gaining understanding or mastery of the underlying concepts.

'AI' Sucks the Joy Out of Programming

After realizing AI is not really what we want. we should begin to break free from it.
Go back to reading documentations and implement things ourselves even if it means
shipping slower…

If you want to be a code artisan, you are welcome, but you can’t stop automation. Humans like to automate. Humans love to automate even when the task would take less time to do it manually.
And programmers are the kings of automation. A programmer complaining about his job being automated sounds like an executioner who is against the death penalty. It’s funny, but also, we don’t make sex to make children; first and foremost, we make sex for the pleasure. So vibe coding feels like artificial insemination. Your wife gets pregnant, and you have nothing to do with it. Not very satisfying indeed.
Unfortunately, the market rewards the quick and messy half-baked product. You can stay a niche artisan woodworker, but other people will go Ikea mass production style because the market will push for it.
The market doesn’t care about art or skill, only profit.
PS btw, coding with an AI still requires a developer.

Great article! I have exactly the same experience with LLMs and can put my signature under every word.

Spot On. I have tried it and found myself in the same boat.
I have however found that it does a good job refactoring, documenting, and unit tests.
Fyi, I don’t do TDD. (Dont get me started)