INFRA Signal 447
John Carmack argues AI is making hand-written coding skills less critical
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John Carmack draws an analogy to martial arts evolving from battlefield necessities to formal disciplines, saying carefully writing code by hand is undergoing the same transition as AI makes those skills less essential.
Carmack is publicly acknowledging that AI is eroding the practical necessity of manual coding skills that defined earlier generations of programmers. For engineers, the warning is explicit: clinging to traditional craft skills over adapting to AI-assisted workflows risks obsolescence, however deep that expertise runs.
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Carmack compares the trajectory of programming skills to martial arts, which shifted from pragmatic battlefield techniques to sports and hobbies.
He argues that carefully writing code completely by hand is moving from a practical discipline to a formal one, akin to the shift from -jitsu to -do.
He warns programmers not to be like an out-of-touch Kung Fu master defeated by an amateur MMA fighter, implying AI will displace traditional coding craft.
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