Ask HN: Is Coding Solved?

A Hacker News user argues that coding itself has been solved for years, comparing importing a sort library to adding a WordPress theme. The user contends that large organizations over-hired developers even before AI, and that LLMs often produce biased or low-quality solutions due to poor training data. The real unsolved problem, they say, is requirements gathering, which is an organizational challenge, not a technical one.

Is importing a library and then calling sort means solved? Is adding a theme to Wordpress meaning you have a website? i.e. then it was "solved" ages ago. If not, no. If the question is will there be less needs for developers then I'd argue most large organizations have always just over-hired; AI or not, especially during COVID. If the question is do we still need a brain then yes. LLMs have been fed so much crap from the masses that it can be terrible. You ask it the best solution and it often shills for AWS etc and pushes you in that direction. There's so much training data from use-postgresql-for-everything spam that 90%. it'll also spit that out. Coding may always have been solved, in a sense. Requirements are not solved and may never be, because that is an organizational problem, not a technical one. But it will keep you working.