Ruby on Rails creator David Heinemeier Hansson says AI can't yet equal most junior programmers. It's why he still mostly codes by hand.

"You're in total darkness and then it'll flicker on and you go like, 'I can see everything.' And then two seconds later, boom, pitch black."

"as good as a job as most junior programmers I've had to deal with."

"And this is why I'm a little skeptical about the claims that AI is already now at a place where you can take your standard SaaS business and then fire half the programmers and still go faster."

AI remains promising long-term but currently produces inconsistent, unreliable outputs likened to a flickering light bulb, alternating brief clarity with abrupt failure. AI-generated code often falls short of the quality produced by most junior programmers and cannot be relied on to replace software developers in standard SaaS workflows. A specific product retained 95% human-written code, and AI-driven feature attempts have been discarded. Continued focus on handcrafted code preserves product quality, refinement, and launch capability. Widespread economic bets on near-term AI advancement may be premature given current limitations in code production and reliability.

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