Ruby on Rails creator DHH says he's done writing code by hand
David Heinemeier Hansson, co-founder of Basecamp and creator of Ruby on Rails, has quit writing code by hand. After 25 years as a professional programmer, DHH announced the move during an emotional keynote at Rails World 2026 . It's a remarkable reversal. Just over a year ago, he was openly pushing back against AI coding. Now he says he hasn't written a single line by hand since around March 2026. Manual coding no longer makes economic sense for most programmers and companies, he argues, and by year's end that'll apply to practically every domain. "English is a better programming language than Ruby," DHH told the audience.
Rather than mourn the shift, DHH framed it as the start of a new career. Programmers will become "professional makers of things," steering "intelligence that was only available in science fiction up until a few moments ago." Software architecture needs rethinking, too. 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 it "the biggest thing that has happened in the history of computing."
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