Writing Software by Hand Is Over
Writing software by hand is over. Agents already write better code than junior engineers. Within six months, I’d bet they’ll out-code senior engineers too.
I love software engineering so much that I can’t imagine a profession better suited to me. Give me a computer and coffee, and I’ll bring an idea to life.
If what you love about software engineering is the act of writing code, it’s a sad time. If what you love is the creative act of building and solving problems, it’s never been more intoxicating.
I’m not pessimistic about our profession. Jevons paradox says that as a technology gets cheaper to build, we build more of it. We’ll build much more software. We’ll just build it differently.
Agent code quality is a function of the model (Opus, GPT-5), the agent harness (Claude Code, Codex), and the verification harness (rules, guardrails, feedback loops) you wrap around them. Assuming you’re on frontier models and harnesses, the verification harness is what sets you apart.
Where agents still struggle
They only know the world you show them. Give them a flaky test without backend context, and they’ll reach for retries instead of finding the slow query in a repo you didn’t share.
They don’t ask if the change should exist. I’ve never seen a review agent say, “Here’s a simpler alternative that solves your problem.”
They finish your sentences. Lead with biased language, even if you didn’t mean to, and you’ll get a biased solution.
The new shape for engineers
- Decide what’s worth building.
- Write a plan and feedback loops an agent can run against.
- Prove the agent shipped what you wanted.
If you’re a senior engineer waiting for the dust to settle, it won’t. Get your reps in now. Write rules, build feedback loops, ship.