An exploration of why niche hobby programming communities — such as OSDev, EmuDev, the demoscene, and code golfers — are increasingly hostile toward LLM usage. In these communities, the process of mastering a difficult domain is itself the goal, not just producing working code. LLMs are seen as a form of cheating that bypasses the hard-won knowledge and craft that define membership and respect. The author argues that LLMs work best as a force multiplier for existing experts, not as a surrogate for learning, and that using them to generate finished work robs practitioners of the craft itself.
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