David Heinemeier Hansson, co-founder of Basecamp and creator of Ruby on Rails, announced he has stopped writing code by hand. After 25 years as a professional programmer, DHH made the shift during an emotional keynote at Rails World 2026.
He argued that manual coding no longer makes economic sense for most programmers and companies, and by year's end, it will apply to practically every domain.
"English is a better programming language than Ruby," DHH told the audience.
He framed the move as the start of a new career, where programmers will become "professional makers of things," steering "intelligence that was only available in science fiction up until a few moments ago." Software architecture will need rethinking, as traditional abstractions lose value when AI agents are the ones changing code.
"No one yet has the blueprint," DHH said. "You get to be there right now as we're defining these things." He called the shift "the biggest thing that has happened in the history of computing." The announcement follows DHH's previous pushback against AI coding, which he openly expressed just over a year ago.
DHH did not say when he will return to manual coding, and he raised the open question of whether the shift will redefine the role of programmers. He emphasized that the move marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of software development.
Source: thedecoder
