DeepSeek Engineer: I Optimize the Operators That Will Eventually Replace Me
minzhu0305 · reddit · 2026-09-16
Liu Sheng, author of DeepSeek v4.1's main Attention operators, shares a candid long essay on being an engineer in the age of accelerating AI.
AI's progress in operator work: In just one year, AI evolved from a documentation-reading assistant into an operator expert that independently reads CUDA/PTX/SASS and optimizes using latency-profiling tools. He expects AI-written operators to match or surpass his within 6-12 months — AI processes 300 tokens per second and its depth, tool use and parallelism keep improving.
Why keep going: Writing operators brings him speedrunner-like joy, and slacking off wouldn't help anyway — other companies' models would render him obsolete. "If revolution is inevitable, I want to be the one who overthrows myself."
On his future: He won't be "unemployed" but will have to "switch careers" — likely keeping a job while no longer doing what he loves. He believes his vision, judgment and initiative will keep him at the table for the next wave.
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