Yes, I miss the typing.
Yes, I miss the typing. I’m sad that LLMs are taking that away from me. I loved putting on some great music 1 and coding away for hours. I enjoyed trying to keep a map of the code in my head, where the functions are, how they compose, what’s next. I have a great mechanical keyboard, I like the rhythmic sound it makes while I type away. Typing the words made it mine. I invested time into my vim skillz and neovim setup. I enjoyed jumping through files, definitions, removing blocks, folding and unfolding code effortlessly, without looking away from the screen or doing finger gymnastics. It was part of my professional identity 2. Everything was optimized to achieve flow state. Flow state is a fantastic feeling.
With agentic coding, I haven’t been able to reach similar levels of flow. LLMs always take too long. I tried working on two, three, or four things in parallel agent sessions and that helps me to “stay in the zone” but it’s not the same. Having to mentally switch between tasks can break my flow. Too many tasks screw my head; it either breaks flow or exhausts me in a short amount of time.
So, yes, I really miss the typing.
On the bright side, what really motivates me is building something other people use. Shipping stuff quickly. Identifying as a “builder of things”. Building things accelerated A LOT and it’s fun. Neovim, terminal skills, etc, are super useful when working with agents. I still write a lot (Requests for Discussion and such) and typing this text while listening to some music has been fun … maybe I should pick up writing here again.
Still, I miss the typing of code.
Aaaaand losing the typing is not even the worst about engineering in the LLM-age. The worst is the decrease in social interaction. Fewer discussions with other engineers, less white board sessions, less pairing. 🤮. I think we’ll need to find new ways of working to bring back some of the fun. A topic for another typing session.
Footnotes
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Two of my favorites: Yoga Electronica on Spotify and Metallica Acoustic on Youtube ↩