The Z/L Continuum: Should AI Engineers Still Read Code?

At AI Engineer Europe, two of the best speakers gave directly opposite advice. Zechner: slow the f*** down, read every line your model writes. Lopopolo: code is a liability, you don't even open the IDE anymore. Both got applause. The room walked out confused. On the train back I sketched the Z/L Continuum on a napkin — a five-stop spectrum from "read the clanker code" to "what IDE?" — and the whole week clicked into place. In this talk I'll walk through the Continuum, introduce FOMAT (Fear of Missing Agent Time — coined backstage by Michael Richman), and make four arguments: the Continuum is real, your stop is per-task not per-person, model capability bends everything toward L, and FOMAT is a filter problem, not an agent problem. You'll leave with a vocabulary for the argument every AI engineer is having right now. Audience takeaways A shared vocabulary (Z, L, the five stops) for the debate splitting AI engineering teams FOMAT — name the fear so you can manage it A per-task framework for choosing where on the Continuum to operate Why capability drift makes "I'll never let it cook" a losing position over time Speaker: Alex Volkov · ThursdAI · @altryne