# Control the ideas, not the code

DevFeed: [Control the ideas, not the code](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/control-the-ideas-not-the-code-20660.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<http://antirez.com/news/169>)

Published: 2026-07-13T11:39:52Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Antirez](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/antirez.md>)

Topics: [Artificial Intelligence](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai.md>), [Programming](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/programming.md>), [Code](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/code.md>), [Large Language Model](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/llm.md>)

Tags: [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [code](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/code.md>), [coding](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/coding.md>), [llm](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/llm.md>), [programming](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/programming.md>)

## AI overview

The author argues that AI is changing programming and that programmers may have greater impact by focusing on software ideas rather than inspecting code as their primary output. The article distinguishes this approach from simply asking AI to produce a final product.

## Source excerpt

Look at the past history of this blog. There are many blog posts about programming with AI, a few of them date back to January 2024 (like this: https://antirez.com/news/140). I'm a relatively well regarded programmer, after all. I don't have the need to still be in the "loop" as a old man that seeks for relevance, I recently rejoined Redis, and now I also am developing a new open source software for local LLM inference that received a good welcome in the community. Why I keep doing this, of saying what people don't want to hear? Why I keep announcing how future programming will be by default? Because I feel the urge of lowering the impact for people less prepared to the change than me, often younger than me, and that, unlikely me, didn't see many of those things coming (In 2022 I published, before ChatGPT existed, a book preannouncing many things that now happened and other things that I believe *will* happen, so I feel like I can say this without sounding egocentric). So mine is a trick. People feel more and more programming is completely modified by AI and don't know what they should do, if they can really start coding in a completely different way, without looking much at the code as their main output. They feel like they are betraying their own field. So my intention is to arrive and say "look at me, In can write code, you know, I'm not hiding behind AI: yet, things changed, it's not your weakness, it's not that you are AI-pilled. It is just that our field is evolving in an incredible *and* painful (but also joyful) direction". This is why yesterday, on X, I said that I believe many programmers at this point have less impact they could have because they look at the code. I truly believe into that. And note that this does not mean to vibe code something just asking for the final product. The point is: if you control the ideas of your software, looking at the code itself is suboptimal and often pointless. For the following reasons: 1. You can now generate a lot of