X Discussion: DHH Says the Age of Agents Will Be Great for Most Programmers but Hard on Cantankerous Ones Who Relied on Rare Skills
Ruby on Rails creator and 37signals CTO DHH (David Heinemeier Hansson) posted two related takes on X on November 2. First: "The great gift of agents is how they allow you to route around every insufferable gatekeeper in software." Then: the age of agents will be amazing for most programmers but hard on the cantankerous ones, because specialized knowledge and rare skills will no longer offer immunity to people who are a pain to work with, so they should learn basic people skills. The second post drew about 3,600 likes, 106K views and 280+ replies in roughly four hours. This is a personal opinion, not an announcement from any company.
Key Takeaways
- This is a personal opinion post by DHH, not an official statement from 37signals or any AI company, and it cites no data or study.
- The main post (2026-11-02 13:03 UTC) had about 3,609 likes, 180 reposts, 282 replies, 60 quotes, 106K views and 400 bookmarks at fetch time.
- His earlier post about 1.5 hours before, saying agents let you route around every insufferable gatekeeper in software (11:41 UTC), had about 2,831 likes, 131 reposts and 80K views.
- Supporters: tech analyst Ben Dickson (@bendee983) quoted it saying great engineers used to get a free pass for being difficult, and AI is leveling the field, though solid engineering knowledge is still required.
- Pushback and additions: one reply joked that cantankerous people just found a coworker who never complains back; another argued an agent will do the work but will not make you nicer, so being easy to work with becomes more valuable.
Linked Models & Agents:
