{"slug": "coding-was-never-the-hard-part", "title": "Coding was never the hard part", "summary": "In response to Senko Rašić's post, a software engineer argues that coding was never the hard part of software engineering, emphasizing that the field is about solving real problems for real people, not just writing code. The author distinguishes coding from programming, stating that programmers are paid to translate customer requests into code, and notes that stress and high demand do not indicate coding difficulty.", "body_md": "# Coding was never the hard part\n\nA love letter to software engineering\n\nI’ve read my fair share of passionate rejections of AI-assisted coding from my fellow software engineers. And I get it! LLMs deserve a ton of criticism for many reasons!\n\nBut, at times, I feel like we live in completely different worlds.\n\nIn this post, I would like to respond to Senko Rašić’s post titled [“Code was never the hard part” is an insult to all programmers](https://blog.senko.net/code-was-never-the-hard-part-is-an-insult-to-all-programmers) [[archived version](https://archive.is/20260808182147/https://blog.senko.net/code-was-never-the-hard-part-is-an-insult-to-all-programmers)], which has a pretty catchy title, I must admit, and it provoked an intense emotional reaction when I first read the title alone.\n\nBefore I respond to the contents of the post, I want to make one thing clear: I do not, at all, agree with the title of Senko’s post. I think the claim that “coding was never the hard part” is not only a love letter to software engineering but also an acknowledgment that software engineering encompasses far more than code. There’s architecture, engineering, customer research, UX, UI, ergonomics, and most importantly, **people**. Software engineering is all about solving **real problems** for **real people** (well, sometimes for other animals too!). Behind every line of code there’s a restaurant order, a traveller, a tax return, a street light, an Amazon delivery, a GPS route, a song. In the tech industry, we solve technical problems. And sometimes, we solve them with code, yes, of course. The important thing about code is not how it looks or behaves; it is the problems it solves.\n\nI am disappointed that in 2026, we still haven’t managed to agree on the fact that whether something compiles and runs is secondary to what problems it actually solves. I have the feeling some software engineers picked up programming perhaps thinking that code was a form of art and that they would be able to express themselves through Python, C, or Haskell?\n\nAnd of course code *can* be art. It is not always art, but it has the potential to be art in the hands of artists such as [Switch Angel](https://www.youtube.com/@Switch-Angel), someone I have deep respect and admiration for:\n\nWith that out of the way, let’s get started.\n\n[The actual response](#the-actual-response)\n\nIf coding is easy, how come programmers were in high demand, and have demanded large salaries for years (even before ZIRP)?\n\nYou are conflating coding and programming. I think we need to be precise with language. Coding is merely typing computer code on a keyboard. You can code HTML, XML, or JSON too! But those are not *programming* languages. Programming includes logic, system design, API contracts, and more. That is what you get paid for. You don’t get paid for typing computer code on a keyboard: you get paid to translate customer requests or Stories into computer code. Actually, I’d say you get paid to solve customer requests or Stories, and you happen to solve this via programming languages if you are a programmer. I prefer the term software engineer, so the distinction between coder and software engineer is clearer.\n\nWhy was there so much stress, overwork and burnout even before AI started churning out 5000-line PRs?\n\nI mean, stress is everywhere in our lives. Ask any fast-food worker, Amazon delivery driver, DoorDash rider, aeroplane pilot, nurse, or lawyer if they feel stressed at work. I don’t think this is indicative of the difficulty of software engineering.\n\nWhy did companies seek 10x ninja rockstar coders and subject them to leetcode interviews—surely, a junior fresh out of college could churn out something if it’s so easy?\n\nBut they *did* seek juniors fresh out of college! There’s an entire industry built around the notion that instead of hiring one senior software engineer for 150k EUR, you can hire recent graduates in low Cost-of-Living countries, and get five to ten for the price of a single Western programmer. I will save my comments on the ethical aspects of this practice for another time. The fact is, those contractors are known to not produce particularly good or reliable code, but it was ideal for scale-ups when they needed to show investors an interactive demo of what their company could offer.\n\nIf coding is easy, why do we have doorstoppers like Clean Code and The Pragmatic Programmer?\n\nExcellent books on **software engineering**. Although people have at times commented negatively on books like these, I think it is important that any self-respecting software engineer reads them, at least once. You don’t have to follow everything in either book, but both will broaden your perspective.\n\nWhy do we have bootcamps or even whole college degrees dedicated to it?\n\nThere are no “coding” degrees. You study Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or perhaps Computer Science. While the number of “computer code” lessons is high in any of those degrees, there is also a good deal of electrical engineering, physics, mathematics and logic involved. You see, it’s not *just* coding. It’s **engineering** (or science).\n\nIf coding is easy, was Carmack just at the right place at the right time?\n\nYes! But Carmack is also a very skilled software engineer with particular expertise in 3D rendering. I wouldn’t call Carmack a “coder”. He has an intuition for numbers, mathematics, and systems.\n\nIf coding is easy, why are people angry at AI (or anyone else) copying their code?\n\nI don’t know why people are angry. Perhaps a matter of ego. All my code is open source. Please steal it. I beg you. It brings me joy. Try my code, break it in a million ways, improve it, don’t contribute back if you don’t want to! I’d love if you showed me what you build with it. Go wild! I’m serious, [steal my code](https://kopimi.com/).\n\nMy repos are on: [https://gitlab.com/ulveon](https://gitlab.com/ulveon)\n\nIf coding is easy, why do many now feel like their identity and professional purpose are being stripped away from them?\n\nMost definitely, and without a doubt, this is ego. Actually, [ego is the enemy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_Is_the_Enemy), but I digress.\n\nIf coding is easy, why is software so damn buggy?\n\nI’m sorry, but this is a very silly thing to say. Writing code that compiles and runs is exceedingly easy. At times, the compiler will even tell you what’s wrong and how to fix it. But, as you probably already know, the fact that code compiles and runs doesn’t mean it works. It doesn’t mean it solves the problems you need solved in the manner you want them to be solved. It doesn’t mean it’s well architected, scalable, maintainable, readable. It doesn’t mean it was designed appropriately, or that the software was developed without time constraints. Sometimes, corners need to be cut, because delaying the release of a piece of software could mean giving your competitor an advantage. Other times it’s a lack of planning, communication problems between teams, and more.\n\nIf deciding what to build is the hard part, why do so many product managers seem clueless?\n\nPeople who get into those positions typically have ascended the corporate ladder, either at that company or another. Moving up the management ladder is a different skill set.\n\nWhy aren’t there rigorous 10-step interviews for them?\n\nDepends on the company!\n\nWhy aren’t they getting paid more than the developers?\n\nAgain, [it depends](https://www.levels.fyi). Companies like Google have positions such as Staff SWE, which is above Senior SWE. If a Product Manager position is a level below a Staff SWE or a Principal Engineer, then, indeed, the Principal Engineer will make more money than the Product Manager.\n\nIf deciding what to build is the hard part, why aren’t market researchers, usability experts and—hell, customer success—considered rockstars in a software company?\n\nI’m honestly not sure what this question is. Big Tech companies pour gigantic amounts of money into research, including UX, market fit, and accessibility. **BUT**! Being an excellent UX researcher doesn’t necessarily mean you can write appropriate code.\n\nIf implementation is easy and finding demand is harder, why are programmers upset when the salespeople promise a new feature to a customer to close the sale?\n\nThat a salesperson closed a deal by promising a feature to a client does not mean:\n\n- The client needs and wants that feature.\n- What the salesperson promised can be achieved in a reasonable timeframe.\n- The software development team does not have any other more pressing priorities to pay attention to.\n- The salesperson and the software engineering team agreed on this feature beforehand.\n\nAnd of course, the fact that this puts software engineers on the spot. If the feature is implemented poorly, the salesperson can deflect responsibility by blaming the developers.\n\nIf coding is easy, why doesn’t everyone just build ten variations of a thing and see which pans out?\n\nI mean, that’s what people are literally doing with AI **right now**. I’ve been told that some people are making a lot of money with this. Would you like to try? Are you jealous? I don’t think I will ever be capable of juggling 10 different projects simultaneously, but be my guest.\n\nI do believe that talking to users, understanding their experience, empathizing with them, solving customers’ problems and having all the stakeholders on the same page is critical to the success of a software project. I also believe that creating good code is a craft that requires skill, patience, attention to detail, experience and wisdom, and that it will continue to be relevant in the times ahead.\n\nI suppose the question is whether you think that code alone can succeed. Without planning, without design, without anything else. Just sit down and start writing stuff. Hopefully nobody thinks this is the proper way to engineer software. Because it definitely is not.\n\nLoudly proclaiming that “code is easy” or, at the opposite end, “code is art, a creative human expression that cannot be automated”, is just burying our heads in the sand. It’s cope. And you don’t want cope, you want to thrive.\n\nOr perhaps the cope is pretending that coding is a highly sophisticated dark art mastered by very few people and that AI is desecrating it?\n\nGood list of books, though.\n\nBy the way: If you respect Uncle Bob (from Clean Code) and Carmack, you should also know they both speak positively about AI. [Uncle Bob likes writing strict tests to let the AI craft the computer code](https://x.com/unclebobmartin/status/2080257779395154409). [Carmack thinks AI has the opportunity to help make codebases more beautiful, and an AI assistant can help clean up and suggest changes](https://x.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/1921967025628578230). So perhaps you should respect AI-assisted coding too.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/coding-was-never-the-hard-part", "canonical_source": "https://ulveon.net/p/2026-08-13-coding-was-never-the-hard-part/", "published_at": "2026-08-13 21:28:51+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-13 21:44:17.066855+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "large-language-models", "ai-tools"], "entities": ["Senko Rašić", "Switch Angel"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/coding-was-never-the-hard-part", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/coding-was-never-the-hard-part.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/coding-was-never-the-hard-part.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/coding-was-never-the-hard-part.jsonld"}}