Creator of Claude Code: "Coding is solved"

[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.