When Writing Software, the Typing Was Never the Job. Neither Is the Prompting.

Keith MacKay Posted on Jun 1 • Originally published at tlcmentor.substack.com When Writing Software, the Typing Was Never the Job. Neither Is the Prompting. # ai # architecture # coding # productivity When Writing Software, the Typing Was Never the Job. Neither Is the Prompting. With AI coding, the coding steps got easier. The thinking steps got harder. You asked for a feature. The AI built it. It runs. It passes the tests. And it's completely wrong -- architecturally backwards, solving a problem you don't have. The code is fine. Your spec wasn't. This is not a prompting problem. It's a mental model problem. Keyboard time is down 70%, 80%, or more. The loop closes faster, the boilerplate disappears, the first draft shows up before you've finished your coffee. But the mental work didn't shrink. It shifted left. What Coding Actually Was Before AI, a good developer's job was never primarily about typing. The keyboard was the final step in a process that looked something like this: You received a problem. You spent time -- reading documents, in meetings, in debate with peers, in the shower, on a run, staring at a whiteboard at 11pm -- building a mental model. How does this system actually work? Where does this feature live in the architecture? What constraints are non-negotiable? What are the three ways this could go wrong and which one is most likely? Many aspects of building that mental model came from prior coding experiences. Coding metaphors used in the past. Knowledge of the problem domain that didn't appear anywhere in the problem statement. Tribal knowledge mentioned in shorthand from other developers that told you volumes ("X built that." "Oh, so it'll be overcomplicated with no comments."; "Don't forget the Y release!" "Right, I need to test for that weird edge case."). Understanding the things that customers or the client prefer that aren't anywhere in the spec. Then, and only then, did you sit down to code. The typing was the translation. You were conve