Proton CTO Bart Butler argues coding by hand is declining

The author argues that while AI tools excel at writing code, internal memos arguing that coding is dead overlook how engineers acquire essential experience and judgment. Historically, expertise is built through facing friction, such as compiler refusals and writing literate programming. To prevent future engineers from losing this foundational learning, the author suggests practices like restating diffs, predicting test outcomes before observing them, and enforcing artificial code constraints. Open article →