Programming is more than typing
Recently, the programming space has been full of claims that LLMs remove the "craft" from "software craftmanship", that we've offloaded the joy of programming, shifting developer autonomy into a tool that we manage (as if that's a bad word). For some, this is an identity crisis. But programming is not about the physical act of writing code or the repeated application of the same patterns. It's about understanding a problem and using technology to solve it. Code is just the interface.
Earlier in my career, I used to view "clean code" as an intrinsic goal, but cleanliness and simplicity are not virtues in themselves. Their value is in understandability and maintainability. If LLMs change what is understandable and what is maintainable, we programmers need to reconsider our values. Our craft has changed and so should our priorities: e.g. specifications and observability seem more important than ever.