On Writing (Code) - by Jakub Halmeš - Unpredictable Tokens

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On Writing (Code)

Jakub Halmeš<br>Jul 06, 2026

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I write much less code by hand now than I used to. Most of it is written by an AI agent in a terminal. When I code in an IDE, I usually have AI-assisted autocomplete turned on, so a bunch of the code is written just by me hitting ‘Tab’. When these suggestions become more distracting than helpful, I turn them off and write the code by hand, without any AI assistance. I think A couple of years ago, 100% of my code was written like this, because there was no AI to do it. Do I miss writing code by hand?

So, why did I enjoy coding in the first place? I think there are two main aspects to it: it’s focused, challenging work, and it allows you to create stuff.<br>I like the problem-solving aspect of programming, when I need to spend focused, ‘deep work’ time on coming up with a solution to a problem, and then encoding this solution in a specific language a computer can understand. I spent a lot of time solving programming challenges on codecademy, codewars, leetcode etc. I like the feeling that I’m training some part of my brain, which would hopefully transfer to other areas beyond coding.<br>And then, making computers do stuff feels good! I remember the excitement I felt when I wrote one of my first programs, a very basic command-line calculator in Python, and showed it to my sister (she seemed excited as well!). Since then, I’ve enjoyed creating a bunch of stuff, and even got paid to do it along the way. I think in part this is just the dopamine hit for solving a problem, and part of it is the appeal of making something actually useful for myself or (ideally) other people, which could improve our lives in some tiny way.<br>In my experience, AI has the opposite effect on these two aspects. I do not spend that much time crafting code to solve a specific problem. I multi-task more. I still need to think about it and read it, but still, there’s less deep work/focused/flow time with the code.<br>On the other hand, it’s much easier to create stuff now! I enjoy vibe coding entire projects without writing a single line of code, as long as I believe there’s some value in the result. I think I enjoy creating projects just for fun/learning experience a bit less now, but I’m not sure.<br>So my current opinion is that I personally don’t miss pre-AI coding too much. I’d like to recover some more of the ‘deep work’ time I lost with hand-only coding. I think there are ways to do this when programming with AI, but also to reclaim it with other activities — like writing a blog!

Other considerations:<br>I also like the fact that I can get paid for it, but that doesn’t seem to be the reason for me to enjoy coding in the first place.

To some extent, I enjoyed the craftsmanship of writing well-designed, elegant code. I enjoyed reading pragmatic programmer/clean code. But I don’t think that was a big part of my identity — I don’t mind machines writing my code. And I think this aspect wasn’t completely replaced but only shifted to some extent, as I still need to review the code, nudge the AI to use specific design patterns, etc.

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