Yes, and
- Source
- htmx.org
- Author
- Michelangelo11
- Date
Context
In an essay on the htmx site dated February 27, 2026, Carson Gross, who teaches computer science at Montana State University, argues that it is still worth learning to program. His core claim is that programming is about controlling the complexity of solutions to problems, which AI tools do not remove.
The mechanism he gives is that evaluating code takes the you build by writing it. He argues that a compiler is largely deterministic while a 's output is not, and that model-written code often adds accidental complexity, so a junior who has a model write everything may never gain the understanding needed to read, judge and architect code later. He suggests using AI as a tutor for concepts, tools and build systems, and shares an AGENTS.md file that configures a coding to act as a teaching assistant instead of a code generator.
This is an argument from the author's experience as a teacher, not a study. The essay predates its October 2026 appearance on Hacker News by several months.
- agent skill — A reusable instruction file that teaches an agent how to do one job well — the procedure, the tools, and what counts as done.
- LLM — A large language model — the neural network behind tools like Claude and ChatGPT, trained on huge amounts of text to predict what comes next.
- AI agent — An AI system that doesn't just answer once but works toward a goal in a loop — taking actions, reading the results, and deciding what to do next.
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