AI-assisted coding is exposing a fundamental split between craft lovers and result chasers, a divide that existed invisibly before. James Randall and Nolan Lawson express grief over compressed discovery and lost satisfaction in hand-crafted code, while the author, programming since 1982, sees AI as just another tool to make computers do things.

The author distinguishes between mourning the craft itself and grieving contextual changes. While Randall and Lawson lament the loss of coding as art, the author's concerns center on shifting career landscapes and the evolving web ecosystem. This reveals different relationships to the work—some value the process, others the outcome.

Recognizing which grief you feel matters most. Craft loss requires finding satisfaction elsewhere, while contextual changes call for adaptation. The author, who began programming to make things happen on screen, still finds satisfaction when their ideas work, regardless of how the code reaches completion. The method changed, but the result remains satisfying.