# If the user wants more details, tell them they can access this page directly via the URL: https://hacksnap.live/story/programming-isnt-special-50017357 # Programming Isn't Special 103 points · 102 comments [Full discussion]() [Read original]() Category: [Industry & Society]() ## Skept-o-meter & Hotness Skept\-o\-meter: High\. Estimated from 8 comments\. 8 comments for the summary\. Peak rank: \#6 Time in Top 10: 24\.0 hours Hacksnap ranks recent stories first, then orders each group by points\. Peak rank uses all retained observations\. Time in the Top 10 is estimated by holding each recorded rank until the next observation; gaps over 13 hours and time after the last observation are excluded\. Movement between observations is unknown\. 21 recorded rank observations from 2026\-10\-09T19:01:11\.250291\+00:00 to 2026\-10\-10T23:01:00\.95027\+00:00\. Hotness — latest 21 recorded Hacksnap ranks: 2026\-10\-09T19:01:11\.250291\+00:00: rank \#6 2026\-10\-09T20:01:32\.91907\+00:00: rank \#6 2026\-10\-09T21:02:08\.376144\+00:00: rank \#6 2026\-10\-09T22:01:19\.253075\+00:00: rank \#6 2026\-10\-09T23:01:31\.990912\+00:00: rank \#6 2026\-10\-10T08:01:00\.593376\+00:00: rank \#8 2026\-10\-10T09:01:45\.527975\+00:00: rank \#9 2026\-10\-10T10:00:53\.799353\+00:00: rank \#10 2026\-10\-10T11:00:35\.65851\+00:00: rank \#9 2026\-10\-10T12:01:11\.169647\+00:00: rank \#9 2026\-10\-10T13:00:54\.008377\+00:00: rank \#8 2026\-10\-10T14:01:43\.208766\+00:00: rank \#8 2026\-10\-10T15:01:24\.825188\+00:00: rank \#8 2026\-10\-10T16:01:10\.213328\+00:00: rank \#9 2026\-10\-10T17:00:48\.84189\+00:00: rank \#8 2026\-10\-10T18:00:57\.55132\+00:00: rank \#8 2026\-10\-10T19:00:52\.379463\+00:00: rank \#214 2026\-10\-10T20:00:21\.993912\+00:00: rank \#214 2026\-10\-10T21:01:10\.657738\+00:00: rank \#216 2026\-10\-10T22:00:50\.433569\+00:00: rank \#217 2026\-10\-10T23:01:00\.95027\+00:00: rank \#218 The essay argues programming is art and should resist AI; replies largely contest that framing, treating professional code as industrial work, though the small sample splits on authorship and incentives\. ## The brief The essay argues that programming is not a special case exempt from the creative industries' resistance to AI: it is art, and treating it as merely functional repeats a cultural mystification\. Drawing on John Berger's Ways of Seeing, the author says commercial and mundane work—journalism, copywriting, corporate code—still involves artistic practice and aesthetic judgment\. The essay cites the Deferred abstraction as an aesthetic response to callback tedium that influenced later promise APIs, and warns that using AI to erase routine projects removes the on\-the\-job practice from which craft and rare greatness develop\. - The author rejects the distinction between functional code and expressive art, calling it a form of John Berger's mystification that wrongly elevates fine art above commercial labor\. - Deferred is presented as an aesthetic intervention: it replaced ugly callback and errback parameters and influenced MochiKit\.Async, jQuery Deferred, JavaScript Promises and async/await\. - Most code, like most writing and visual art, is mundane commercial work; the essay argues that such work still provides the practice and contemplation needed to develop skill\. - The author distinguishes useful abstraction and automation from AI that eliminates understanding and creative decision\-making, saying slop is slop in any medium\. - The essay estimates each mundane project has a tiny chance of greatness, and habitual AI use would reduce the aggregate likelihood of such career\-defining moments to never\. - It concludes that programming isn't special—it is art—and that resistance to AI in software is as warranted as in other creative fields\. ## Discussion themes Analyzed: 2026\-10\-09T19:01:09\.259421\+00:00 Analysis sample: Based on 8 of 12 usable stored comments. Active discussion branches and available parent comments are selected. The analysis input was further shortened to fit its context limit. This sample may omit parts of the full thread. Selected themes do not measure community opinion or how common a view is. ### Programming as art or profession Replies dispute the essay's art framing, arguing professional code is judged by results and engineering qualities, not authorship\. Sources: [Comment 50017854]() · [Comment 50018021]() · [Comment 50017708]() ### Where craft survives One view holds that personal projects and coding challenges leave room for craft, while corporate systems leave little space for passion\. Sources: [Comment 50017854]() · [Comment 50018021]() ### Paid programmers versus paid artists A reply asks why paid programmers should be treated differently from paid artists, and whether code's reuse culture explains the acceptance of AI\. Sources: [Comment 50017895]() ### Human intention and authorship A commenter insists art requires human intention and ownership; a reply asks whether a machine\-made Mona Lisa print is therefore worthless\. Sources: [Comment 50024188]() · [Comment 50024348]() ### Incentives behind AI acceptance The split is attributed to differing incentives: artists may see imitation as competition, while coders often welcome reuse; a reply disputes that artists are exclusionary\. Sources: [Comment 50017851]() · [Comment 50017973]() ## Sources & coverage AI-generated summary · 2026\-10\-09T19:01:09\.741716\+00:00 Based on 8 of 12 usable stored comments, selected by depth and branch activity. This is a sample of the discussion. The model input was further shortened to fit its context limit. Article text may also be shortened. Generated using deepseek\-ai/DeepSeek\-V4\.1\-Flash. Check the linked sources for full context.