Jonathan Blow – If AI Solved Coding, Why Is My Software Still the Same? [video]

Re:Jonathan Blow – If AI Solved Coding, Why Is My Software S... by saberience on Friday November 13, 2026 @12:42PM (#50486989)

The thing with Jonathan Blow is this, it's incredibly easy to tell ahead of time what he will think about any particular subject.

Anything that makes code more available to "normies" Jonathan Blow will absolutely hate. Why? Because Jonathan Blow HAS to be the smartest guy in the room, if he's somehow not the smartest guy in the room, there is something wrong with the room, nothing is ever wrong with Jonathan Blow.

So of course, Jonathan Blow thinks AI coding is terrible, only Jonathan Blow can be the best coder in the world, anyone who thinks otherwise is a total moron.

If you don't hand-roll your own programming language and game engine to make your own game, you're a moron. Hell, he even has a video where he basically says if you don't make your own version of JSON and associated parser, you're a fucking idiot.

What I'm saying is this, Jonathan Blow's ego only sustains itself on the idea that he is right about everything and the smartest person on any given topic. The idea that AI might be better at coding than him causes him to implode in a narcissistic rage.

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Re:Jonathan Blow – If AI Solved Coding, Why Is My Software S... by pzski on Friday November 13, 2026 @12:52PM (#50487131)

Accurate evaluation. People like JB are hit the hardest by AI revolution imo. I also think that it is understated just how many people in academia or in other fields care only about their ego and that they might do something they are going to be remembered forever for aka have a legacy.

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Re:Jonathan Blow – If AI Solved Coding, Why Is My Software S... by dgellow on Friday November 13, 2026 @01:30PM (#50487703)

He was already arguing the same before the AI developments. His position has little to do with agentic evolution

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Re:Jonathan Blow – If AI Solved Coding, Why Is My Software S... by Dezvous on Friday November 13, 2026 @01:03PM (#50487301)

You're not alone, I find him to be completely insufferable.

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Re:Jonathan Blow – If AI Solved Coding, Why Is My Software S... by jojva on Friday November 13, 2026 @01:14PM (#50487474)

Funny, I independently arrived at the exact same conclusion. He's incredibly easy to read and predict because every single opinion he holds is based on his ego. Like for example, when people ask him why he developed his own engine for his games, he'll answer that it's because other devs take shortcuts and he doesn't. But dude, the entire point of not making your own engine or language is not because anyone's lazy, but because it allows you to focus your precious time on more important stuff like the actual gameplay, the story, etc. Maybe then it wouldn't take more than 10 years to release a video game.

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Re:Jonathan Blow – If AI Solved Coding, Why Is My Software S... by nsagent on Friday November 13, 2026 @01:25PM (#50487637)

If he was honest with himself, he would rightly say he did those things for his own edification. If you have the time and ability. As someone who also cares deeply about his craft and spends more effort than I probably should improving my personal tooling, I'm clearly all for it.

Is it strictly necessary? Most certainly not. I've met equally dedicated and talented individuals who are fine adapting to existing tooling and working around idiosyncrasies rather than improving the tooling. That personally drives me batshit, but I can stomach it if required.

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Re:Jonathan Blow – If AI Solved Coding, Why Is My Software S... by bena on Friday November 13, 2026 @01:46PM (#50487940)

And he likely spent a good portion of those 10 years making sure it had "most pzzles evar" as if the only difference between quantity and quality was spelling.

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