At least 1/4 of the reason I quit my programming job is doing all the shit that WASN'T coding. Yeah a lot of it sucks (Like remembering exact syntax or worrying about some bs that humans shouldn't have to like deref'ing a null or some shit). But 90% of the fun of coding was figuring out the puzzles. Applying the right solution. Figuring out little tricks.

Which of these do these guys like to do? Code review in general. Some guy submitting a rejection of your shit because he wasn't in the call where we realized "oh this is how we have to do it for 30 reasons". Figuring out why your shit won't compile. Writing build files. Fixing build files because windows and linux both suck and can't decide on basics (or our tools wouldn't do shit automatically suddenly, despite them doing it when I first got there). Being told to rewrite your code and make it worse because "well we need it simple, not good" (the solution you presented isn't complex, none of the code I ever wrote was beyond a C student). Sitting in a meeting for some reason. Being told by customers that they need something they said they didn't. Waiting for some tool to finish that takes 6 hours to run sometimes. Making the same test for the 30th time. Filling out paperwork/"agile" "story" shit.

Like I haven't touched a single coding assistant beyond auto/tab complete. (And I'm not plugging in "claude" into it, just using whatever shit vscode or w/e is defaulting to 95% of the time.) No matter how good they are, I don't see the point. Maybe some specific llm/""ai"" tool could review my code. But the actual CODING, the writing, was never the really hard part. It was the design, working modern design with legacy code/reality, and not wanting to shoot your pc for failing to load a file and failing a build.

It's making me realize that there's an entirely different type of programmers who aren't doing it to solve problems. I still don't quite get their angle though. Solving problems is what makes programming interesting.

I disagree, it's the "a-ha" moment when a piece of code just works and the thing you wanted as output is now in the screen.

The worst part is being stuck with some weird error and spending hours not getting anywhere because you didn't say the magic words in the way the compiler liked.

But have you thought about the excitement of being able to find another way to record and sell customer data? Or maybe how to round about violate people's rights for money?