Simon Willison Amplifies Argument That Programming Is a Dead Profession
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On October 20, 2026, Simon Willison relayed Jeremy Scheff's argument that coding agents have taken away the puzzle-solving fun that professional programmers enjoy most. The argument notes that in the past, the thornier the logic puzzle, the higher the pay, and it was the programmers themselves who set the strategy, the timeline, and the definition of feasibility. The piece also distinguishes two cases: for programmers who love building usable systems and don't care about the process, LLMs are a continuous benefit; but if the joy of solving problems is their core, the loss is very real.
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- Simon WillisonMy obituary for programming
Simon Willison, citing Jeremy Scheff's view, argues that coding agents have taken away the puzzle-solving pleasure professional programmers enjoy most — in the past, the tougher the logic problem solved, the higher the pay, with programmers themselves setting strategy, timelines and feasibility. For programmers who like building usable systems and don't care about the process, LLMs are a continued benefit; if the joy of solving problems is central, the loss is very real.
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