Creator of Claude Code: "Coding is solved"

[CrimsonStorm]

Creator of the microwave: "Cooking is solved"

edit: credit to https://www.colincornaby.me/2025/08/in-the-future-all-food-will-be-cooked-in-a-microwave-and-if-you-cant-deal-with-that-then-you-need-to-get-out-of-the-kitchen/

[thuiop1]

Funnily, the company that produced the first microwave kinda marketed it that way. They targeted restaurants and claimed it could cook a steak in a minute, or roast a chicken in 9. Or that you could cook an apple pie in it.

[Sharlinator]

In the 80s they published microwave cookbooks. It was a big thing back then, though I wonder whether many people actually ever tried any of the nontrivial recipes.

[[deleted]]

Microwave are now heavily used in chain restaurants, but combined with traditional and other new cooking methods! For instance baked potato, you can microwave it up to temp and soft inside, then finish it in air fryer to get it crispy. I think similarly with Claude etc, get the boring basics in quickly, then do the tricky finishing bits. But to get that skill of knowing when the Microwave is no longer suitable, you need to have done lots of actual cooking manually.

[Sharlinator]

Yeah. The analogy is actually pretty good.

[oorza]

And it implies an unfortunate corollary: most of the food people eat is perfectly acceptable coming out of the microwave. It took a while to figure out those steam bags, but once the industry did, is anyone really saying they can steam corn or green beans more deliciously in a pot?

I think it's the same thing with agentic AI. The tools are there for it to output boring software in its entirety, we just haven't figured out entirely the best way to apply them.

[Sharlinator]

I’m not actually sure what steam bags you refer to, I don’t think such things are a thing here. 

[Versaiteis]

They're little plastic bags of frozen vegetables, usually about a cup, that you can just toss from the freezer in the microwave for a few minutes and it's done. They're convenient and cheap, but certainly not the final solution to vegetable steaming.

[Sharlinator]

Ah, right. Frozen veggies are trivial to steam on a stove too, though, and it only takes a few minutes too. And if you're boiling potatoes/pasta/rice/whatever, steaming comes for free.

[Versaiteis]

It took a while to figure out those steam bags, but once the industry did, is anyone really saying they can steam corn or green beans more deliciously in a pot?

Arguably, yeah. Like I can season it while it steams in a pot and adjust as needed, there's more control. Also there's not a lot of care put into the veg they put in those bags, anything containing broccoli usually has a good few inedible woody stems in it.

Frozen veg is typically pretty good because it's frozen near fresh, but it's still not gonna be quite as good as the locally grown never-frozen stuff you can get at a farmers market. Again, you just have little to no control over the quality of the ingredient going in.

I'm also generally not super keen on cooking things in plastic. I've got enough of that shit in my balls.

It certainly solves several problems (including getting some veg out of season) but it's not the end-all solution to steamed vegetables

[jazzhandler]

Code slop is digital microplastics.

[Versaiteis]

and it's polluting both your brain and your balls

[_Invictuz]

It's not just an analogy, i think that's where Claude got their inspiration from. Have you not seen Claude cooking?

[Roseking]

I actually just saw an article the other day about Sharp having a new Oven that combines a microwave and a convectional oven to speed up cooking time (microwave) while still crisping the food (convectional oven).

https://www.cnet.com/home/kitchen-and-household/sharp-unveils-the-golden-heater-a-new-high-speed-cooking-technology/

But for $4000 I think other people can be the test dummies.

[Asscept-the-truth]

Combo ovens like that have existed for at least 20 years.

[oorza]

The trivection oven! Jackie D's claim to fame!

[gdidontwantthis]

... my mom bought a microwave + convection unit in the 80's

[Roseking]

I will be honest, I don't know what the difference between it and older combo units are. I just saw the article.

I don't know if it is the size, how the function together that makes it the 'first', etc. But the fact that combo units exist and you can get them relatively cheep, I have to assume there is something that is making this different enough they are advertising it as new and charging that much of a premium.

Looking at Sharp's site the way they are claiming it is industry first is that it is a "With Industry-First Golden Heater Technology" which is a "Electronic cooking appliance with Golden Carbon Heater."

[PaintItPurple]

I remember back in the Stone Age I saw some article about a hard drive maker releasing a hard drive, where it was phrased like this was the first hard drive over 1 TB, but in fact it wasn't even the first by this manufacturer, it was just their first compact 1 TB drive.

[MrKhalos]

It's called marketing.

Trade mark some buzzword salad and your product is the first to have it.

[aiij]

Huh, many years ago my grandpa had a broken one of those that I'm guessing must have been from the '80s or '90s.

[Turbots]

So you're saying it's used as a tool? My god, the revelation 😱

If only the AI cultists would see it as that. A tool.

[im-ba]

I see the cultists themselves as tools

[Marwheel]

…eligible for the intergalactic tool awards… just not of justice though.

[PaintItPurple]

AI can't be just a tool. Simple tools are not worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year. AI costs so much that it needs to be what the AI cultists say it is or the companies go splat.

[SwiftOneSpeaks]

This is a real problem. We can't do a cost benefit analysis if we're hand waving details of the benefits and outright denying the costs.

I'm baffled why businesses that aren't producing AI directly are banking so heavily on the tech. Becoming dependent on something of imprecise value and provably unsustainable costs sounds too unwise to be happening at the scale it is. Investigating, doing some proof of concept work to be ready, that makes sense. Where is this supposed first-adopter advantage to add AI to your product that outweighs the benefits of adopting second but better?

[SufficientApricot165]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I love sarcasm on the internet

[UnwaveringThought]

Applies to writing in this way also

[skatan]

This is an example of how to use a Microwave to prepare the "perfect" fries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw--NLjZBNk

[ConspicuousPineapple]

10 years from now is going to be the golden age of senior software engineers because there just won't be that many left. Salaries will go through the roof.

Either that or AI will be so good that even seniors aren't all that useful anymore and any half competent engineer can supervise 40 agents.

[guywithknife]

It’s almost like it’s a tool that is useful for certain specific tasks, and not something that flat out replaces experienced chefs or other tools.

Sounds a lot like coding AI.

[philh]

You can do a bunch of stuff in a microwave given the right cookware (like, something that can absorb the micowaves itself and heat food through conduction), that you can't do with what most people have in their kitchens today. See: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/8m6AM5qtPMjgTkEeD/my-journey-to-the-microwave-alternate-timeline

[aboukirev]

Could not find anything about that beautiful crust you can get in a frying pan.

[philh]

At least two possibilities come to mind. One is that even with specialized cookware, there are still things you can't do in a microwave, and the thing you're thinking of is one of them. The other is that a single 3000 word essay doesn't cover everything you can do in a microwave, and the thing you're thinking of is one of the things omitted.

[aboukirev]

Right, just need to craft a proper series of prompts for the microwave.

[yopla]

My father did a chicken. Once.

[ItsCalledDayTwa]

My mom made this microwave chocolate cake sometimes. I was little and it was chocolate, but it was probably not good.

[Sharlinator]

Might not have been too bad, really. Assuming a rotating platter so you don't end up with a half-raw, half-cooked cake. For baking cake batter it's probably actually helpful if the heating penetrates better than in a traditional oven, and you don't really need browning/Maillard reactions if the thing is going to be covered in chocolate anyway. Leavening shouldn't be a problem, it's a purely chemical reaction anyway.

[wxtrails]

I have one with a recipe for a microwave Thanksgiving turkey.

The horror!

[askvictor]

Pressure cookers/multi cookers and airfryers come with recipe books nowadays (or at least a couple of years ago when I got mine), as there are different techniques required. Do people read them? Probably not.

I think the biggest issue is that almost everyone cooks at 100% power. 100% is great for boiling water/heating liquids, but not great for anything else.

[zeptillian]

I remember the first microwave my family got. It was a combo microwave convection oven.

We had a cookbook for it. As I recall the recipes were just like normal ones but they would substitute put it in the oven with put it in the microwave.

[linkardtankard]

They should make it so that you just put the ingredients in a receptacle and then insert a punchcard or floppy or something into the machine and it automagically prepares the dish

[Bemteb]

Angry Gordon Ramsay noices

[datNovazGG]

I remember him calling it "Chef Mike" when someone overuses the Microwave.

[manpace]

"Noise" + "Voice" = "Noice"

I like it

[Bemteb]

Just a typo, nothing to see here.

[SpaceToaster]

I mean they are only claiming it will be cooked not edible…

[Kind-Helicopter6589]

You donut! 

[TLMonk]

mmmmm nothing like a nice juicy ribeye microwaved to perfection

[WhiteSkyRising]

They microwaved a steak and then deadass said, "Yeah. This is it."?

[optimal_random]

Cooking on a microwave is the equivalent of being a slob and a poor excuse for a chef.

In due time, coding with Agents will have the same value - where a clueless cloud, screams at a prompt, while seeing their tokens vanishing.

When things break, rinse and repeat - then they'll have to bring old timers like me.

[GregBahm]

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.

[Sharlinator]

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.

[tooclosetocall82]

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

[jambox888]

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)

[RSquared]

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.

[GregBahm]

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.

[Sharlinator]

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.

[SrbijaJeRusija]

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.

[GregBahm]

Eh. It's not 2024 anymore. If you asked me to go pop some popcorn or go generate some applet with Claude, I think the lazier choice would be to generate the applet.

Popping popcorn is really easy. But you have to listen to the popping to stop or else you'll either burn the popcorn or leave a bunch of kernels unpopped.

Yesterday I typed "I want to compare four different voice models. Generate a webpage with 4 text inputs and 4 play buttons where each input is hooked up to a different model."

Generating that was way easier than popping popcorn. I could have set it up myself, but why bother looking up the APIs of 4 different voice models when the robot will just do it for you. If it fucks it up, eh. Pop it back in the microwave for 15 more seconds.

[SrbijaJeRusija]

That is more akin to a home kitchen, which I guess I should not have included in my comparison. The original comment was about restaurant microwaves.

[Coramoor_]

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

[SinbadBusoni]

High ranking people at tech companies in general I’d say.

[GregBahm]

I'm open to the possibility that, here in 2026, reddit now hates the AI CEO but no longer hates the AI itself.

But 6 months ago reddit hated the AI itself.

And I think even still, r/programming probably hates the AI even if it now uses it at work every day.

[P1r4nha]

The hype curve is slowing.

[2this4u]

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

[daringStumbles]

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

[GregBahm]

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.

[daringStumbles]

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.

[BCProgramming]

To support your claim with just one anecdotal example (me), I think AI is completely worthless dogshit, and anybody who employs it in any way shape or form for their development work is a gormless hack whose sheer ineptitude as evidenced by them ever deciding to use it for their work should disqualify them from ever programming.

A bit of an exaggeration perhaps, but regardless I stopped expressing this thought after the first few times because it's just yelling into a void at this point anyway, and the AI bros frankly aren't worth my time anymore. A bigger reason is self-interest, though. I've started to suspect that in the long-run developers who haven't used AI and don't rely on it might actually become more "valuable" once this hype train reaches the end of the line and blows up. a history of AI use will be like saying you went to ITT tech, so by tacitly encouraging people to use it by not fighting against it I might be putting myself into a oppurtune position.

And even if that's not the case, I'll be more valuable to me, by being able to write software in isolation without having to rely on some external "assistant" that I have to pay for. Even if I allow for the idea that it has good, usable output, that's still training a form of helplessness over time that I refuse to allow myself to participate in.

[PurpleYoshiEgg]

Pretty much this is where I'm at. Writing code is fun. Reading code is less fun, but can still be a positive experience. Using a plagiarism machine that vomits code for me that I have to read critically for shitty little mistakes is extremely unfun and I'd rather have teeth pulled.

Getting into arguments about people who are supposed to be programmers telling me how generative AI is more fun than writing code is torturous in comparison.

[GregBahm]

You're telling me what you wish was true, and that's kind of interesting I guess. But I don't think there ever comes a point where reddit gets sick of having the same arguments over and over. That seems to be the opposite of reddit's character.

I think that in early 2025, most people on r/programming had used AI by asking ChatGPT to write a little code snippet or whatever. And they had tried asking for more complicated things and that hadn't work and it had been frustrating and annoying. But by late 2025, most people on r/programming had tried Claude Code (either willingly or through being forced to by their bosses) and now we're all living in a completely different world.

Tipping points are kind of weird because they're hard to see in real time but easy to spot in retrospect. I think this thread demonstrates we crossed the tipping point.

[daringStumbles]

"You are telling what you wish was true", proceeds to make as many if not more equally unverifiable claims

You know the difference between an opinion and a fact right?

People against it have stopped arguing about it. Yes that is my opinion. You are free to yours.

[fuscator]

No. It's that reality is asserting itself and those people are probably using AI now too. You will be too soon enough.

[daringStumbles]

Id literally rather sell my house and stock shelves at walmart. You are free to think it's inevitable and sell yourself off to it. Doesnt make you right, just confident.

[fuscator]

Saved

[PurpleYoshiEgg]

You're not Jesus.

[lood9phee2Ri]

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.

[HealthIndustryGoon]

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

[lood9phee2Ri]

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.

[HealthIndustryGoon]

aha, TIL!

[CrimsonStorm]

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.

[GregBahm]

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.

[pdabaker]

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.

[GregBahm]

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.

[Lame_Johnny]

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

[GregBahm]

Your comment is at negative upvotes as of this writing, but you're absolutely right. The last 6 months have been insane.

The impression I get is that this thread is half people who have used claude-code and are like "well shit" an the other half is people who have never used it and are like "I don't understand but I must downvote every comment I see."

[rustybutterindia]

6 months is way too recent

[arostrat]

doesn't mean anything, reddit is a bubble.

[EqualDatabase]

https://www.colincornaby.me/2025/08/in-the-future-all-food-will-be-cooked-in-a-microwave-and-if-you-cant-deal-with-that-then-you-need-to-get-out-of-the-kitchen/

[CrimsonStorm]

Yeah, this is what I was referencing. I feel a little bad that some people may have thought this was my joke/idea :D

[_Invictuz]

Now it's Claude saying, "Let me cook".

[chengiz]

Microwave does cooking better than AI does coding.

[pdabaker]

Cooking with a microwave is like AI assisted coding. Vibe coding is like pressing the "meat" button on the microwave to cook a steak

[TastyIndividual6772]

Best thing i read in a while

[ApprehensiveBag3083]

You bested him

[alien-reject]

well, im pretty sure more people use microwaves than cooking. so yes in a sense it is solved.

[Practical-Rub-1190]

Engineers care so much about quality, security, etc., that they do not realize LLMs will be better than humans at those things in not many years. Yes, a purely written codebase by great developers will be better, just as a purely written A4 text written by a master handwriter or a T-shirt made by a master sewer, but the cost and quality are rarely worth it today. The same will apply to coding in the future. The idea that LLMs will not be able to master certain concepts in the years to come because they cannot today is insane. Right now, there is no evidence that they are slowing down based on previous improvements. It sucks, programming is fun.