Meeting C++ 2026 - Robots in the Gym: Preserving the Art and Joy of Programming

Hannah Lenk

On Day 2 at 14:30 (CET/Berlin) in Track E [Bernstein Room and online]

Rumors of software engineerings demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Nonetheless, I am concerned when it is regularly proclaimed to be 6 month away and saddened when we are cynically thanked for our difficult-to-remember effort of having written software character-by-character.

Not because I deem complete replacement a realistic proposition. Even if that happend, I wouldn't be terribly concerned. We'd find something else. We are problem solvers, not code monkeys.

Not because - absent fulfillment of elevated promises - the problems of jobs lost, juniors neglected and energy wasted will come back to haunt us.

They might, but mainly such messaging saddens me because its sentiment - and the discourse it nurishes - fundamentally misses the point.

It treats the act of programming as a mere means to an end, a nasty chore we would all like to get rid of if only it weren't for such pesky concerns as food, money or realistic capabilities.

More than for the profession, I fear for the craft, the art and the joy. Something important gets lost in the noise of fear & hype, hope & hate:

I love coding. So do you. We have flattened rocks and tricked them into thinking. Yet, in so doing, we tricked ourselves into thinking too, which is not appreciated enough.

In this talk, I will remind us why we do what we do, what it is that makes my favourite activity so special, engaging and meaningful.
We will explore programming as a creative, educational and social endeavour and realize why the process - much more than the output and its quality - is valuable and worth preserving.

I will share thoughts and resources for how to do so, extol the virtues of recreational programming and encourage collaborative projects.

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