37signals Stops Writing Code by Hand as DHH Says Only About 5 Developers Still Do
Updated
Updated · Business Insider · Sep 27
37signals Stops Writing Code by Hand as DHH Says Only About 5 Developers Still Do
3 articles · Updated · Business Insider · Sep 27
Summary
37signals has adopted a "pencils down" rule on handwritten code, with David Heinemeier Hansson saying engineers should use AI-generated code by default and write manually only when the tools fail.
At the Rails World keynote, Hansson framed hand-coding as an "exceptional state": developers can sketch fixes themselves, then "fix the machine" so the AI agent can produce the result next time.
Hansson said the shift reflects what is already happening across software development as tools such as OpenAI's Codex, Anthropic's Claude Code and Cursor rapidly change how engineers work.
Business Insider's January poll of 150-plus software engineers showed a mixed transition: more than 45% said they were keeping up with AI tools, while 17.5% said they were opting out entirely.
Surveying the Rails World audience, Hansson said only about five people appeared to still write material amounts of code by hand each week, underscoring how far the practice has receded.