Programming is not a special or transcendent activity but merely another form of artistic labor, according to software developer and writer Glyph. In his blog post 'Programming Isn’t Special,' he argues that programmers should join writers, musicians, and visual artists in resisting AI tools that threaten creative work, rather than accepting AI-generated code as harmless because programming is 'just functional.' The core claim is that programming deserves the same artistic recognition and protection as other creative disciplines.
Glyph contends that while most programming is mundane, functional work akin to copywriting in writing or advertising in visual art, code can be intentionally designed as aesthetic expression. He points to his own invention of the Deferred abstraction as 'an intentional poem about asynchronous task execution' that influenced the evolution from callback‑heavy code to modern async/await syntax. This aesthetic dimension, he argues, makes certain software socially and technologically important, even though the majority of code remains routine, workday implementation that 'could not make a lady weep.'
The real danger of AI in programming, according to Glyph, lies not in replacing exceptional work but in eliminating the mundane tasks where skill development actually occurs. He warns that using AI to automate all copywriting‑level programming removes the 'practice and contemplation required for people to elevate their craft to eventually achieve great things,' since true skill development happens 'on the job' through routine work. When AI eliminates these foundational experiences, it reduces the likelihood of career‑defining moments of greatness from 'definitely sometimes' to 'never.' He also notes that the aesthetic experience of software is often wildly detached from its internal state, a problem that AI would exacerbate.