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Why hobby coders treat AI-written code as missing the point [1]

['Ellsworth Toohey']

Date: 2026-08-12  

A programmer named Fogus came across a GitHub argument about chess engine development and wrote about why hobby coding communities are hostile toward large language models. Hobbyists say is working code isn't the goal. They like to build operating systems, programming languages, and console emulators, or try to fit a working program into as few characters as possible.

Fogus writes. "The process of mastering a difficult field itself is the product, and something that runs is generally a nice-to-have." Members earn standing slowly, over years in the forums, through elegant code and shared domain knowledge. "At the end of the day, these communities don't care if your code works at all, but instead care that you know why and how it works."

Early attempts to bring the tools into those circles failed, because newcomers did not understand the domain and because a "vitriolic subset" of regulars consider it cheating.

"To me, an LLM functions best as a force multiplier, not a surrogate," Fogus writes. "In the hands of an expert who already understands a domain deeply, it could act like a lever." A footnote on that last sentence says that expertise "offers no natural immunity against being fooled by LLMs."

Previously:

• Demoscene wins UNESCO cultural heritage recognition in Netherlands

• Javascript demos and games in less than 1 kilobyte

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2026/08/12/hobby-coders-against-llms.html

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