# On the Foolishness of Natural Language Programming by Edsger W. Dijkstra

6 Hacker News commenters recommended On the Foolishness of Natural Language Programming by Edsger W. Dijkstra and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** A short Dijkstra essay arguing that natural language programming is a dead end, and why it is still relevant to vibe coding. People say it is a joy to read and worth the two minutes.

## Why people recommend it

- Short and worth reading (2 comments): "It's such a joy to read, and even though it is very short and to the point it says so much" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45866749)) "It is short and worth the 2 minutes." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46928421))
- Explains why natural language fails (2 comments): "It really does a good job at explaining why natural language programming (and thus, Vibe Coding) is a dead end." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47096026)) "As Dijkstra points out in his fantastic essay on the idiocy of natural language" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45950481))
- Relevant to today's vibe coding (2 comments): "It really does a good job at explaining why natural language programming (and thus, Vibe Coding) is a dead end." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47096026)) "The most important one in the context of 2025 is this one" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45866416))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Programming as Theory Building by Peter Naur](https://hackerapproved.com/p/programming-as-theory-building.md): 32 recommend
- [Ur-Fascism by Umberto Eco](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ur-fascism.md): 18 recommend
- [Politics and the English Language by George Orwell](https://hackerapproved.com/p/politics-and-the-english-language.md): 14 recommend
- [Right to Read by Richard Stallman](https://hackerapproved.com/p/right-to-read.md): 12 recommend
- [Meditations on Moloch by Scott Alexander](https://hackerapproved.com/p/meditations-on-moloch.md): 11 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "On the Foolishness of Natural Language Programming by Edsger W. Dijkstra", https://hackerapproved.com/p/on-the-foolishness-of-natural-language-programming/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).