The Barefoot Engineer (nemanjamilicevic.com)

"The Barefoot Engineer" argues that pride in shipping code without LLMs reflects a deeper identity tension as AI tools reshape software engineering. The author likens coding without AI to running a 5K barefoot: possible but unnecessary, and draws on Karl Weick’s firefighter analogy and the historical arc of compilers to show how tools that once inspired resistance (compilers, IDEs) became essential. Using Andrej Karpathy’s Software 1.0/2.0/3.0 framing, the piece clarifies that classical deterministic code, neural-network–based models, and LLM-driven natural-language programs are complementary paradigms—each best suited to different problems (e.g., deterministic APIs vs. neural spam detection vs. LLMs for ambiguous moderation and user-facing explanations). Technically, the article emphasizes that AI acts as a force multiplier: code summarization, accelerated onboarding, hypothesis-driven debugging, scaffold generation (CRUD, infra), and interactive tutoring speed engineers up while freeing them to focus on architecture, trade-offs, and hard problems. It warns of hallucination and confidence hazards, underlining that core engineering principles—decomposition, clean interfaces, system reasoning—remain essential. The takeaway: engineers who master principles and adopt AI tools will extend their reach; those whose value is rote coding risk obsolescence.