I'm pretty undecided on where I stand on LLMs, but I have to point out that I use them before making my point.
The thing with AI is that the output we get from it is not deterministic. With assembly lines you can get a good enough deterministic output (having component failures in mind) that everything is gonna be fine. I've never been to a car factory, but I'm sure there are guard rails in place to ensure minimum damage if something goes wrong. There is simply not such a thing with AI, thus the programmer has to be the guardrail. The blog post leans a bit heavy into sentimental words for the programmer's mind, but I'm guessing this is what they mean by the "deep human thoughts" part.
I really feel like university has drifted me away from the spirit of engineering. The topics sound really fun in theory, but the execution of the professors is so poor that it really makes you want to "just pass" the class.
Therefore, I really want to reignite my passion in 2026. Work on my basic skills and get them as close as possible to perfection, maybe dabble in some open source projects. Hell, maybe even start my own. I can see myself getting into theory again, but I want to do it out of passion, and not necessity.
In terms of non-technical skills, philosophy is what is on my mind right now. I don't really like the world view that I currently possess and stoicism sounds fun, so I will be giving that a try.
Those were the concrete plans. I used to have an artsy side when I was a kid, and that side comes out and gets repressed by me every once in a while. I don't really know what I need to do to reignite that passion, so any suggestion is wholeheartedly appreciated.