Opinion: Coding agents strip the puzzle-solving appeal from software development
Simon Willison reflected on how artificial intelligence coding agents are changing the nature of software engineering, sharing a commentary written by Jeremy Scheff. The essay argues that professional programming historically allowed workers to earn strong pay by solving complex logic puzzles on their own terms, controlling timelines, strategies, and implementation.
Key points
- Jeremy Scheff writes that coding historically paid well because non-technical people could not solve logic puzzles themselves.
- Simon Willison highlights that software engineers previously controlled project strategy, timelines, and implementation feasibility.
- Engineers focused on final outputs benefit from language models, but those enjoying logic puzzles lose professional satisfaction.
Willison notes that while automated tools and language models benefit engineers focused strictly on delivering end products, they remove a key source of satisfaction for developers whose primary joy came from untangling coding problems themselves.
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My obituary for programming
Simon Willison · 19 October 2026Loading the full article…
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