Code is still the hard part

The idea that AI solved coding and left only business decisions behind ignores how software actually gets built.

A post on blog.senko.net pushed back against the popular narrative that "coding was never the hard part." The essay sparked wide debate, collecting 494 points and 330 comments on Hacker News. The author points out basic realities: if writing code were easy, companies would not pay top salaries, run leetcode interview gauntlets, or write doorstopper textbooks like Clean Code.

Why it matters: Dismissing implementation as trivial ignores the real technical craft behind engineering. As software grows more complex, abstractions stack higher, and bit-rot sets in, system architecture remains a cognitive challenge that AI does not erase. Understanding customer needs is critical, but so is writing software that does not fall apart.

Know this: Users still rarely know what they want, technology keeps moving forward, and software entropy never stops. Pretending code is simple will not make systems less buggy.

Punch cards turned into LLMs, but writing good code remains hard work.