Karpathy: Software Development 'Has Changed for Good' — Using LLMs Feels Like 'Cheating'

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In a ShiftMag interview, Karpathy elaborated that using LLMs feels like 'cheating' because code that used to be a point of pride is suddenly free and instant — a phase change, not an incremental improvement. The role of software engineers is moving away from writing individual lines of code toward orchestrating large code actions. This extends his 'vibe coding' thesis into a more concrete vision: the LLM era makes orchestration skill the scarce resource, not coding ability. For builders, the implication is clear — invest in agent orchestration, not syntax mastery.