Simon Willison responds to 'An Obituary for Programming': Coding Agents Steal Programmers' Joy of Problem-Solving

Simon Willison responds to Jeremy Scheff's obituary on programming, arguing that coding agents have stripped away the core joy of problem-solving for programmers. Scheff believes programming was once a high-paying job of logic puzzles, where developers held the power over strategy, timelines, and feasibility. Willison adds: If you only care about building usable systems, large language models are a continuous gift; but if you enjoy the process of solving problems, the loss is very real.