Developers Experience Deep Blue Existential Ennui

On 15 February 2026, hosts on the Oxide and Friends podcast (credit to Adam Leventhal) coined "Deep Blue" to describe the psychological ennui and existential dread many software developers feel as generative AI encroaches on programming. The article cites ChatGPT Code Interpreter (2023) and recent GPT-5.2/5.3 and Claude Opus releases, noting coding agents can perform complex tasks and are causing genuine mental anguish.