Simon Willison: programming experience retains its value even after the arrival of AI coding agents
In his commentary on the “Feeling sad about AI” discussion, Simon Willison describes how the initial disappointment programmers feel at the speed of AI agents usually fades once they realize that plenty of other work remains where their experience can be put to use.
Independent LLM commentator Simon Willison responded to the “Feeling sad about AI” discussion on Hacker News with a post about how software engineers are coping with the arrival of AI coding agents. According to Willison, many people experience a moment of existential crisis (as he himself did a few years ago) when an AI agent completes in an hour work that would otherwise take a week — the initial reaction is disappointment and unease.
But Willison describes how this phase passes: once people realize that accurately translating a specification into code is no longer a unique skill, they can focus on the broader set of problems that software engineers solve and discover that plenty of work remains. According to him, existing experience and skills make it possible to master the new tools and achieve results at a higher level than those who start building software with agents without a similar depth of knowledge.
The author adds that anyone who does not want their profession to change at all will struggle with this transformation — but in his view, that has always been true in software engineering, because tools and languages have never remained stable for more than roughly five years. According to him, the current changes are simply faster, not fundamentally different, and people who chose software development as their field signed up for frequent and radical changes from the outset.
Why it matters
The text offers a framework for programmers to process the frustration of seeing an AI agent quickly complete work that used to take a long time — it recommends shifting attention from writing code to a specification to broader software engineering problems where experience still plays a role.
Relevant practical impact
What this means
For individuals
According to the author, experienced programmers retain their value even in the age of AI agents because they can use these tools more effectively than beginners and focus on problems beyond simply writing code.
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