Teddy (T.M.) Brown@TM_BrownMarch 28, 2026
Most (good) programmers do think of writing code as a hands-on process, enjoy that process, and use the writing-code process as an integral part of thinking/designing well.
But unlike prose writing, for any non-trivial program, the code is only one part of a much larger system. Docs, tests, layers and layers of duct tape and systems integrations.
Code is not the final product and it doesn’t exist in any standalone, independent sense.
You learn two things early in a professional programming career (if you’re lucky).
First: you can’t fall in love with any code you write. All code is disposable. Enjoy the craft of writing and refining elegant code. But long-term iteration is almost always much more important and critical to good work than de novo production is.
Second: you are as good a programmer as the number of levels of abstraction you can hold in your head at one time. This is both a skill and a guide to how you need to structure and design your code. (This is an @ID_AA_Carmack insight.)
This means that many programmers are already very comfortable hopping up and down in the technical stack. So moving up to “pair program” with LLMs does take you farther away from the specific layer of programming that’s probably been your day-to-day norm until now. But that actually doesn’t feel all that unfamiliar. New, amazing, and strange in a bunch of specific “whoah a computer could never do this before” ways. But also surprisingly like working with a fun, interesting, human colleague on a big project.
Teddy (T.M.) Brown@TM_BrownSo actually I’m curious about the vibe coding vs. AI writing divide and why programmers seem cool with using Claude code while writers are widely against it. Genuine question: Do programmers not see the process of writing code as integral to the discipline?