Programming is Art

Sep 07, 2026 03:05 PM - 1 hour ago 1

When I started programming, my full time revolved astir development. I’d aftermath up, constitute code, and spell to sleep. And that’s really it was time successful and time out. My full societal circle consisted of group who besides wrote code. I studied frameworks, libraries, and various programming languages.

I sewage into improvement because I was fascinated by the thought that by penning code, I could create caller programs. All I needed to do was study really to program, and I’d beryllium capable to create anything. If I learned PHP, I could build back-end applications. If I learned HTML and CSS, I could build websites.

I could take what I wanted to create, study the basal technologies for it, and commencement building. You unfastened an IDE, create a caller project, and build it from scratch. You take patterns, libraries, and frameworks; you publication the archiving and dive into the root code. You get truthful immersed successful the process that you don’t moreover announcement really the days alert by. Over time, you create your ain coding style.

I wrote code, and I enjoyed penning code, but it wasn’t the benignant of activity I wanted to do for the remainder of my life. I preferred creating thing caller to the existent process of penning code. I liked starting from scratch — pinch thing but an thought — to create a merchandise that group really use. That’s why I’ve ever worked exclusively astatine startups and ne'er astatine ample companies.

I’ve ever dreamed of advancing my profession — to go a squad lead, a manager, aliases to return connected different domiciled that didn’t impact penning code. And whenever personification other could constitute the code, I’d displacement distant from coding toward managerial tasks. Whether I wrote the codification myself aliases delegated it to others didn’t matter to me.

Although I sewage into improvement retired of an liking successful creating things, later connected I did it solely because I was getting paid for it. For me, it was conscionable a job. Even though I wrote codification successful my free time, I still utilized that attack to build my ain startups, which I planned to make money from. Writing codification and making money were inseparable. Over time, income from projects became the main focus, alternatively than simply the desire to create projects.

But there’s different type of person. These are existent programmers who constitute codification sloppy of income. They constitute codification simply because they can’t thief but constitute it. It doesn’t matter to them really overmuch money they make from it. They mightiness activity connected open-source projects that will ne'er make immoderate income for them.

They bask penning code, solving improvement challenges, designing, figuring retired the logic, fixing bugs, and knowing the full strategy arsenic a whole. They bask the process itself. And they’ll ne'er manus that complete to AI agents.

I emotion building startups, and they emotion penning code. For me, building projects is simply a measurement to make money. For them, programming is art.

That’s why each my arguments astir really AI helps maine build projects are wholly irrelevant to existent artists. They don’t request AI to thief them pinch anything.

And that’s why there’s often a antagonistic guidance to the declare that AI will soon switch each programmers. For artists, this declare itself is illogical. Even if immoderate technological breakthrough occurs and AI tin genuinely activity autonomously and lick problems hundreds of times faster than humans, group will still proceed to constitute codification by hand, statement by line. AI will ne'er beryllium capable to return distant their expertise and desire to constitute code.

I don’t usage AI erstwhile writing. It produces soulless, bland text. AI slop that nary 1 wants to read. I want to travel up pinch the wording myself, proofread and edit the text, travel up pinch a title, and delete unnecessary sentences and full paragraphs. I for illustration it erstwhile caller ideas for the matter travel to maine arsenic I’m writing. The penning process itself — the reasoning that goes connected successful the infinitesimal — is important to me, not conscionable the result. If I asked an AI to constitute a matter connected the taxable “Programming is art”, that thought process wouldn’t happen. I wouldn’t acquisition the aforesaid emotions that travel pinch penning it myself. For me, penning is creation that I prosecute sloppy of money. I deliberation group who bask penning codification consciousness the aforesaid way.

← Before Developers want to constitute codification by hand

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