“Code Was Never the Hard Part” Is an Insult to All Programmers

In a recent blog post, developer Senko Rašić takes direct aim at a common trope in the AI era: “Code was never the hard part.” The argument, often used by AI advocates, suggests that LLMs handle the coding easily, so the real challenge is deciding what to build. Rašić calls this “a gross insult to all programmers.”

He opens with a series of pointed questions: If coding is so easy, why were programmers in high demand and well paid before ZIRP? Why was there so much stress and burnout? Why did companies hunt for 10x ninja rockstars and subject candidates to leetcode hazing?

He also challenges the flip side—that “figuring out what to build” is the true hard part. If that were true, why are product managers often clueless, why aren’t they paid more than developers, and why don’t they face rigorous 10-step interviews? Why are business analysts looked down on as pencil pushers?

Rašić argues that “there’s no median programmer” when it comes to wanting to talk to stakeholders. Most developers he’s met have no desire to talk to customers—they want clear priorities and stable requirements. He points out that even developers who claim to be “customer problem solvers” often pivot to monads and memory safety, with only a shallow understanding of actual customers.

The post emphasizes that both code craftsmanship and understanding the customer are critical. “A deep understanding of the system we’re building, together with a deep understanding of why we’re building it,” he writes. He rejects the extreme positions on both sides: “Loudly proclaiming that ‘code is easy’ or, at the opposite end, ‘code is art, a creative human expression that cannot be automated,’ is just burying our heads in the sand.”

He closes with the Spanish phrase “¿Por qué no los dos?”—why not both? The goal is to pursue both the craft and the purpose. “You don’t want cope, you want to thrive,” he writes. But he stops short of endorsing an LLM bandwagon: “By this, I don’t mean ‘jump on the LLM bandwagon.’”