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Writing code is cheap now

simonwillison.net

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Re: Writing code is cheap now

#291

Post by ap99 »

tabs_or_spaces wrote: post #130

> Code has always been expensive. Producing a few hundred lines of clean, tested code takes most software developers a full day or more. Many of our engineering habits, at both the macro and micro level, are built around this core constraint. > ... > Writing good code remains significantly more expensive I think this is a bad argument. Code was expensive because you were trying to write the expensive good code in the…

Code has a generation cost and a maintenance cost.

If you just look at generation then sure it's super cheap now.

If you look at maintenance, it's still expensive.

You can of course use AI to maintain code, but the more of it there the more unwieldy it gets to maintain it even with the best models and harnesses.

Re: Writing code is cheap now

#292

Post by kranner »

simonw wrote: post #144
tabs_or_spaces wrote: post #130

> Code has always been expensive. Producing a few hundred lines of clean, tested code takes most software developers a full day or more. Many of our engineering habits, at both the macro and micro level, are built around this core constraint. > ... > Writing good code remains significantly more expensive I think this is a bad argument. Code was expensive because you were trying to write the expensive good code in the…

I was careful to say "Good code still has a cost" and "delivering good code remains significantly more expensive than [free]" rather than the more aesthetically pleasing "Good code is expensive. I chose this words because I don't think good code is nearly as expensive with coding agents as it was without them. You still have to actively work to get good code, but it takes so much less time when you have a coding agen…

> I was careful to say "Good code still has a cost" ...

Misleading headline, with the qualifier buried six paragraphs deep. You have a wide enough readership (and well deserved too). Clickbait tactics feel a little out of place on your blog.

Re: Writing code is cheap now

#294

Post by softwaredoug »

arkh wrote: post #203

Every modern (and not so modern) software development method hinge on one thing: requirements are not known and even if known they'll change over time. From this you get the goal of "good" code which is "easy to change code". Do current LLM based agents generate code which is easy to change? My gut feeling is a no at the moment. Until they do I'd argue code generated from agents is only good for prototypes. Once you…

This is the brake on “AI will replace all developers”.

Coding is a correctness-discovery-process. For a real product you need to build to know the right thing. As the product matures those constraints increase in granularity to tighter bits of code (security, performance, etc)

You can have AI write 100% of the code but more mature products might be caring about more and more specific low level requirements.

The time you can let an agent swarm just go are cases very well specificed by years of work (like the Anthropic C compiler)

Re: Writing code is cheap now

#295

Post by kaizenb »

● When everyone has access to the same models, and those models can produce working software quickly and cheaply, the code itself stops being a moat. A reasonably skilled person can now build what used to take a team of engineers months to ship.

● A competitor can reach feature parity in days. The thing that used to protect a business, the sheer effort required to build it, is mostly gone.

● Think of it like oil. If every property owner had a well that was cheap to operate, the price of oil would fall toward the price of water. The resource is abundant, the extraction is easy, and the margin disappears. Software features are heading in the same direction.

https://designexplained.substack.com/p/the-moat-has-moved

Re: Writing code is cheap now

#296

Post by kakacik »

ap99 wrote: post #291
tabs_or_spaces wrote: post #130

> Code has always been expensive. Producing a few hundred lines of clean, tested code takes most software developers a full day or more. Many of our engineering habits, at both the macro and micro level, are built around this core constraint. > ... > Writing good code remains significantly more expensive I think this is a bad argument. Code was expensive because you were trying to write the expensive good code in the…

Code has a generation cost and a maintenance cost. If you just look at generation then sure it's super cheap now. If you look at maintenance, it's still expensive. You can of course use AI to maintain code, but the more of it there the more unwieldy it gets to maintain it even with the best models and harnesses.

I 'love' that folks are seemingly inching slowly towards more acceptance of crappy llm code. Because it costs marginally less to produce to production if you just pass some smoke tests? Have we not learned anything about technical debt and how it bites back hard? Its not even seniority question, rather just sane rational approach to our craft unless one wants to jump companies every few months like a toxic useless apple (not sure who would hire such person but world is big and managers often clueless).

There are of course various use cases, for few this is an acceptable tradeoff but most software ain't written once and never touched (significantly) again, in contrary.

Re: Writing code is cheap now

#298

Post by chr15m »

foepys wrote: post #245
chr15m wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am constantly getting LLMs to change features and fix bugs. The key is to micromanage the LLM and its context, and read the changes. It's slower that vibe coding but faster than coding by hand, and it results in working, maintainable software.

A study last year concluded that while AI coding feels faster it actually isn't. At least in mid 2025. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44522772

That's a good point. Myself is the easiest person to fool.

I knocked together a quick analysis of my commit graphs going back several years, if you're interested: https://mccormick.cx/gh/

My average leading up to 2023 was around 2k commits per year. 2023 I started using ChatGPT and I hit my highest commits so far that year at 2,600. 2024 I moved to a different country, which broke my productivity. I started using aider at the end of 2024 and in 2025 I again hit my highest commits ever at 2,900. This year is looking pretty solid.

From this it looks to me like I'm at least 1.4x more productive than before.

As a freelancer I have to track issues closed and hours pretty closely so I can give estimates and updates to clients. My baseline was always "two issues closed per working day". These are issues I create myself (full stack, self-managed freelancer) so the average granularity has stayed roughly constant.

This morning I closed 8 issues on a client project. I estimate I am averaging around 4 issues per working day these days. I know this because I have to actually close the issues each day. So on that metric my productivity has roughly doubled.

I believe those studies for sure. I think there is nuance to using these tools well, and I think a lot of people are going backwards and introducing more bugs than progress through vibe coding. I do not think I have gone backwards, and the metrics I have available seem to agree with that assessment.

Re: Writing code is cheap now

#299

Post by simonw »

kranner wrote: post #292
simonw wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was careful to say "Good code still has a cost" and "delivering good code remains significantly more expensive than [free]" rather than the more aesthetically pleasing "Good code is expensive. I chose this words because I don't think good code is nearly as expensive with coding agents as it was without them. You still have to actively work to get good code, but it takes so much less time when you have a coding agen…

> I was careful to say "Good code still has a cost" ... Misleading headline, with the qualifier buried six paragraphs deep. You have a wide enough readership (and well deserved too). Clickbait tactics feel a little out of place on your blog.

This is the chapter title for a sort-of book I'm working on, and it's the central philosophy I'm building the book around.

I'm not going to change a good chapter title (and I do think it's a good chapter title) just because people on Hacker News won't read a few paragraphs of content.

A dishonest title would be "Code is cheap now" or "Programming is cheap now". I picked "Writing code is cheap now" to capture that specifically the bit where you type code into a computer is the thing that's cheap.

Re: Writing code is cheap now

#300

Post by bsenftner »

This is such a surface level take, it's embarrassing. Unless he's talking about the impression in society, but he is not.

Writing code is a social act even though few actually read it the code, they experience the result of that code.

Maybe, just maybe Simon means "code is disposable now", because some shortcut taker can spin up an apparent duplicate by coaxing and pleading with AI.

That is not a future worth participating in, that's intellectual begging death, because that will create an environment of worthless nonsense.

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