Ask HN: Can I still code by hand?

[dudewhocodes]

I keep up with the latest in agentic coding on a daily basis and use it.

Lately however, work has started feeling duller than before. Whenever I'm digging through a deep problem by manually inspecting a stack trace or writing a piece of code by hand I'm overwhelmed with: "I should be doing this differently".

And whenever I do it the agentic way I find myself having to re-read a lot of things to understand the changes.

I was happier when I could just write it myself without thinking about token subscriptions. I liked writing code.

Can I still code myself at least a bit? Or should I try to move on?

[billy99k]

"I was happier when I could just write it myself without thinking about token subscriptions. I liked writing code."

We may eventually see all dev work shifted in this way. It will become a different job altogether.

[reneberlin]

Yes, of course you can! It's just preferrable to use the fingers instead of the hand.

Instead of letting the agent do it for you, you can prompt it to describe it and let you do the job.

[php-3]

Thats a good question, for 2026 i moved on, cause i can write so much Code til one day with ai...