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The Eternal Sloptember

Hacker News · May 25, 2026, 3:47 AM

Key takeaways

  • I’m calling it now, the adoption of AI agents into software development will be one of the most costly mistakes in the field’s history.
  • I bought into the Twitter explanation of status anxiety.
  • I mean, it’s very clear they can solve math problems I couldn’t hope to solve if I devoted my life to it.

I’m calling it now, the adoption of AI agents into software development will be one of the most costly mistakes in the field’s history. Agents cannot program, and it’s taking longer and longer to realize that they can’t. They are a highly sophisticated statistical model designed to mimic the distribution of programming. The output is broken, but in a way that’s getting harder and harder to detect. Which is exactly what you’d expect from an increasingly accurate statistical model.

At first, I rejected this. I bought into the Twitter explanation of status anxiety. I define some of my self worth by my programming abilities, so wouldn’t it make sense to get defensive around that loss? Deny the models can code for as long as I could to preserve my ego?

I mean, it’s very clear they can solve math problems I couldn’t hope to solve if I devoted my life to it. So why can’t they program? Maybe I’m just not good enough of a programmer to recognize their genius.

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