Grieving the craft: two answers to coding agents
Andy Balaam writes about the sting of being told his craft is obsolete. The same day, Simon Willison publishes a counterargument.
In short
Two posts published on September 11, 2026 respond to the same unease: Andy Balaam defends loving the craft itself, while Simon Willison argues the value of the job was never the code-typing.
At a glance
- Andy Balaam published 'Feeling sad about AI' on artificialworlds.net on September 11, 2026.
- Balaam offers three messages of hope: to himself, to fellow code lovers, and to people still learning.
- Simon Willison posted his own Hacker News comment on Balaam's piece the same day.
- Willison's core claim: turning an exact specification into decent code is no longer a rare skill.
- Balaam points to his earlier post 'Why I don't use AI' and to his two children learning to program.
Two posts landed on September 11, 2026 describing the same discomfort and arriving in different places. Andy Balaam, writing at artificialworlds.net, says the message that programming is obsolete reads as disrespect for a life's work. Simon Willison, the same day, published his own Hacker News comment on that piece. One defends the love of the craft; the other redraws the job description.
The part that hurts
Balaam is careful to separate his feeling from the usual arguments. It is not about AI ethics, and not about whether the tools work. What stings is being asked to set aside the craft he built an identity on in favor of generated code.
His answer takes the form of three messages of hope. To himself: nobody can take away the enjoyment of programming, and he does not need approval from the people dismissing it. To other people who like code: keep going, keep supporting the makers. To learners: the skills still matter, because even under the most optimistic AI forecasts a lot of code will still be needed, and understanding how systems work is the durable part.
He mentions two children currently learning to program and says he is confident that grounding will serve them whatever the industry does. He also points readers to an earlier post of his, 'Why I don't use AI'.
Willison's reframe
Willison starts from a moment many engineers recognize: an agent finishes in hours what was scoped for a week, and the output holds up. His response is to move the value rather than talk the feeling down. Once you accept that turning an exact specification into decent code is no longer a distinctive skill, he argues, you see how much of the engineering job is still sitting there untouched.
Depth still pays in that account. Engineers who already have it can master the new tooling and operate well beyond where a beginner can reach. He also places the disruption in context: rapid tool churn has been part of this profession all along, not a development of the last few years.
Same reading, different conclusion
The two pieces conflict less than their tone suggests. Balaam answers at the level of respect; Willison answers at the level of what the work actually consists of. Neither denies that the shape of the job is moving.
What is not established here
Only what the two authors published themselves is verified above. The Hacker News thread Willison responds to was not reviewed for this article, so nothing here describes the size, mood, or reception of that discussion. And two blog posts are two voices, not a measurement of how widely this feeling is shared.
FAQ
What is Andy Balaam's 'Feeling sad about AI' post about?
It is about the sting of hearing his craft declared obsolete. Balaam states plainly that his sadness is not about AI ethics and not about whether the tools actually work.
What is Simon Willison's answer to fears about software jobs?
That translating an exact specification into decent code is no longer a rare skill, and that accepting this reveals how much of the engineering job remains untouched.
Is it still worth learning to program, according to these posts?
Balaam says yes: even optimistic AI forecasts still require a lot of code, and knowing how systems work is the lasting skill. Willison frames existing depth as an edge over newcomers.
