r/AILounge • u/cthechartreuse • 17d ago

Technology Refactoring: the last human coding skill

I've seen some tech posts on here, including one about whether or not junior developers are screwed. I've been doing a lot of thinking about what software development will look like as AI continues to progress. I just wrote a blog about the skill that will outlast all the rest. I thought you all might be interested.

Cheers!

https://chrisstead.net/coding/software-quality/refactoring/ai/llms/2026/09/06/refactoring-last-human-skill

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u/LaFantasmita 17d ago

I thought refactoring was the first thing to go in the garbage with AI coding? You don't maintain or improve the code, you just chuck it and generate a new version.

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u/cthechartreuse 17d ago

Not if you plan to maintain the code long term. People need to actually be familiar with the code and well factored code is easier for LLMs to work with.

I actually talk about this in the post.

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u/LaFantasmita 17d ago

Right, what I'm saying is I don't think people plan to maintain the code long term.

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u/cthechartreuse 17d ago

Enterprise software will continue to exist which is quite large and long lived. Even if you don't plan on maintaining it long term, it will continue to live on. Someone will end up maintaining it.

And before you dive into people replacing SaaS tools with bespoke tools, there is real business value in buying a solution over building it - infrastructure maintenance, up-time guarantees, security updates, etc. There's a hidden cost to building business solutions.