What Karl Marx Would Say About My Coding Agents
Loren Stewart / Source Code
AI coding agents can build software quickly, but relying on them for everything can make engineers feel disconnected from their work and miss chances to learn. The author uses Marx’s idea of alienation to explain this loss. He suggests choosing when to delegate, supervise agents, or code by hand—and accepting that some work can wait.
30 Oct 2026
My situation is very different from that of Marx’s mill workers, who couldn’t redesign the mill. I built my factory and can change how it runs. I’ve handed it work that once challenged me, taught me, and gave me satisfaction, measuring success by how little it needed me. To take some of that work back, I could build three distinct modes into my factory: full autonomy, close supervision, and manual work.
Some work will take longer this way. I may choose an afternoon of writing code over another finished feature. That is difficult to defend if output is the only measure, but I don’t think it should be. I want the feature, and I also want a life that gives me room to practice the skills that make me who I am.