Ask HN: Should I learn to code in 2026?

My answer is if you want to code as a hobby -- yes; if you want to code as a job -- no. The reason I say this isn't that corporations won't still need some people with coding skills even in a world where all or most code is generated by AI, it's that the number of jobs is such that there isn't room for new people to enter the industry. Many jobs are being lost and few new jobs are being created. A new person could focus their efforts on something else, such as an apprenticeship to become an electrician, which would be much more likely to pay off and much more lucrative. It looks like manual dexterity will be the hardest thing for AI to automate, so a job that combines human cognitive skill with manual dexterity, such as being an electrician, is probably a much smarter way to go than learning to code, if one's goal is making money. Do you all think I am out of line in saying this?

I'm inclined to agree with Casey Muratori who suggests we think of coding like playing guitar. Should you learn to play the guitar in 2026? Very few people can make a living playing guitar. It's not impossible -- even in the age of synthesized guitars and now AI generated music, there are still superstar rock stars who make a living playing guitar -- but it's a very small fraction of people who can play the guitar. If you want to make a living playing guitar, then you probably shouldn't learn it. On the other hand, if you want to play the guitar for its own sake, as a hobby, then yes, you should learn it.

Now more than ever, there's a whole world that is running on this stuff, and it's amazing to work on your own agency & ability to understand & shape things.

The "agents" are all agency amplifiers, in truth. They lack will and direction. For people interested in having will, in defining and shaping things, in having an engaged stance in the world: yes, a thousand times yes, learning to code is amazing. And it's so much more interesting, so much easier to learn with this forever-available knowledgeable peer, and there is so much less pain on path to learning and building, the work flows amazingly forth.

From three days ago there was Ask HN: When did computers stop being fun? and I think the question asked there was so telling. The gentleman's stance defined himself into being only a passive boring receiver, of a fixed unchanging world that he was locked in. Computers never were fun on these terms! It was always the openness to possibility, the progressiveness we can feel in our own lives, as we work and shape the world around us, improve the situation for ourselves and those people we are fortunate enough to help in the world. Keep that spark of life alive inside you, be engaged in the world! There's many ways to do that! Coding is such an endlessly rewarding, limitless frontiers way of engaging the world, that you can dive into and explore, at the speed of LLM augmented thought. It's such an excellent worthwhile thing to apply yourself to, will let you keep your mind fed and expanding, seeing and growing forever. Enjoy it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48164173

Apart from regular coding, I now have to learn the various functionalities and features of AI Editors and concepts such as rules, skills, harness, etc. etc. Cursor seems to be different from Claude Code, and every day some or other editor is launching new concepts that I can't wrap my head around. I haven't tried claude code anytime and used only Cursor, but Claude Code terminal coding is scary.

I agree in principle. Just unsure whether future programming looks anything like todays'.and how much understand an average person in the loop will actually need if one is not a coder by profession

Yes, regardless of how good LLM coding becomes people will still be required in the loop at some point. Programming knowledge will help you even if AI does all the coding.