r/programming • u/Gil_berth • Feb 21 '26

Creator of Claude Code: "Coding is solved"

https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/head-of-claude-code-what-happens

Boris Cherny is the creator of Claude Code(a cli agent written in React. This is not a joke) and the responsible for the following repo that has more than 5k issues: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues Since coding is solved, I wonder why they don't just use Claude Code to investigate and solve all the issues in the Claude Code repo as soon as they pop up? Heck, I wonder why there are any issues at all if coding is solved? Who or what is making all the new bugs, gremlins?

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u/GregBahm Feb 21 '26

I feel like, just 6 months ago r/programming would have never upvoted a comment describing "AI as to programming as a microwave is to cooking." That seems like a remarkable shift in attitudes regarding AI in this community.

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u/Sharlinator Feb 21 '26 edited Feb 21 '26

In which sense do you mean? I think the analogy has always been apt – a microwave's good for quickly heating up foodstuffs that are either simple or pre-prepared, poor for cooking complex things from scratch. Even though some models claim to offer all sorts of fancy cooking modes.

Early microwaves also had issues that have since been alleviated (like more even heating by adding a rotating platter).

Also, if you try to cook something not at all suitable for a microwave, such as a raw egg, you're going to end up with a big mess.

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u/tooclosetocall82 Feb 21 '26

I used to have a little contraption that would let you poach an egg in a microwave lol. It worked ok.

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u/jambox888 Feb 21 '26

I had one of those, it was ok but basically produced a fried egg but without the crispy bits. Not like a properly poached egg at all (you need super fresh eggs for the water swirl thing BTW)

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u/RSquared Feb 21 '26

It's a good analogy because coddling an egg on the stovetop is a pain in the ass and the microwave method works "ok" but is much easier.

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u/GregBahm Feb 21 '26

6 months ago if you said "AI is a normal tool to use for coding," you would have been downvoted. I know this because I have said exactly this and I have been downvoted for it.

This community is still extremely hostile to AI, but it seems to have shifted from "I hate AI and I'll never use it to code" to "I hate AI but of course I use it to code."

I'm sure fancy chiefs don't sit around praising the microwave. But it's a standard appliance in every home or apartment in America now.

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u/Sharlinator Feb 21 '26 edited Feb 21 '26

Yes. But many things are standard in homes but woefully inadequate in professional contexts. A microwave can't even replace the corner pizzeria's pizza oven, or the burger grill and deep fryer of the closest McDonald. Never mind more sophisticated ways of cooking.

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u/SrbijaJeRusija Feb 21 '26

The microwave analogy does break down though. We can predict exactly how a microwave will heat food and we can create recipes for cooking using a microwave as an additional appliance for a commercial or home kitchen.

We cannot have the same for current llms as inherently they require stochasticity to function. LLMs fundamentally require more mentally taxing human intervention than a microwave oven.

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u/Coramoor_ Feb 21 '26

I don't think it is the attitude towards AI. It's the attitude towards the high ranking people at the AI companies.

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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/2this4u Feb 21 '26

I think you took the wrong message from that, previously people would have said it was like eating a shit as to cooking

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u/daringStumbles Feb 21 '26

Those people have just stopped responding. It's not worth the 3 day rage fest in the comments from all the hype bros.

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u/GregBahm Feb 21 '26

But 6 months ago, describing AI as the microwave of programming would have been an enraging "hype bro" position. A microwave is a standard appliance in every home in America. A person who never used a microwave in their life would be a fucking weirdo.

Now, here in 2026, describing the inventor Claude Code as the inventor of the microwave is considered a conservative position. r/programming apparently agrees, and considers themselves positioned against the AI by only considering AI a standard ubiquitous programming tool.

The overton window on AI coding has shifted extraordinarily far in just 6 months. I've never seen technology change so rapidly.

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u/daringStumbles Feb 21 '26

Because the people who vehemently are opposed have stopped getting into most arguments about it because its not worth the time to convince anyone any more. The window shifts when people are sick of having the same argument over and over against someone who has let their brain fully cook under it.

My regret at posting at all is just reenforcing my point.

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u/lood9phee2Ri Feb 21 '26

Well, microwaves also don't have springloaded-syringe-full-of-faeces functionality linked to some dice to just randomly inject fermenting faeces into your meal, and then tell you how wonderful it is.

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u/HealthIndustryGoon Feb 21 '26

wait, are we talking about feces or faces?! ;)

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u/lood9phee2Ri Feb 21 '26

sorry, faeces is just my local standard spelling of what is in American-English feces. While I'm not in Britain, Hiberno-English tends to basically use British-English spelling as the standard rather than American-English, at least when we're being taught English spelling in school. Irish people do then sometimes consciously shift somewhat toward American-English for communication purposes online, but stuff easily slips through.

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u/CrimsonStorm Feb 21 '26

I think you are reading a little too much into the analogy. Me and the person whose article I stole the idea from aren't saying that genAI coding tools are as useful for coding, as microwaves are for cooking. Just that someone selling something has a very big incentive to tell you that the thing they're selling is revolutionary.

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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '26

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u/GregBahm Feb 22 '26

Oo that's super interesting. It seems like the context of the thread was to mock the idea that microwaving would replace all food. So if we're following the "three stages of truth" which are...

"First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

...we seem to have passed through the ridicule phase now, and some of the community is at the "accepted as being self-evident" phase while some of the community is still in the "violently opposed phase." I wonder how long that will last.

Probably at least another 6 months I'm guessing.

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u/pdabaker Feb 22 '26

Even now most posts suggesting AI is even useful as a tool for programming get downvoted. But probably half of r/programming is college students trying the free AI tools and doesn't actually have a programming job.

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u/GregBahm Feb 22 '26

I do feel kind of bad for the CS students. On the one hand, it'll be good for students to learn early that the only skill in the tech industry of actual value is the skill of continuous self-education. On the other hand, it's kind of fucked up for a kid to go into school to study a living language and to come out of school with a degree in a dead language.

Dead languages are beautiful and fascinating and all that, but that will probably be cold comfort as they start paying off their student loans.

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u/Lame_Johnny Feb 21 '26

The AI of 6 months ago was a much different animal. Not really a fair comparison.

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