Code of Conduct ⚡ Zig Programming Language

Strict No LLM / No AI Policy

No LLMs for issues.

No LLMs for pull requests.

No LLMs for comments on the bug tracker, including translation. English is encouraged, but not required. You are welcome to post in your native language and rely on others to have their own translation tools of choice to interpret your words.

Reading this on the Zig project page, I brushed it off as Zig sticking their head in the sand and making an ideological, but misguided call. It was only after reading The Zig project’s rationale for their firm anti-AI contribution policy - Simon Willison’s Weblog that I started to engage with the rationale of Zig’s choice, and I have to admit that I was the one that sutck my head in the sand and made an ideological, but misguided call.

I think Zig’s committment to building up contributors that can then build up the project is very similar to the philosophy of the Long Now Foundation:

Our highest hope is that the next generations will never doubt that we thought of them and built for them. They will simply see this as normal human behavior.

– Long Now Foundation

Building up future generations to ensure our critical projects can outlive their founders is as important as it is overlooked. We measure time in quarters, measure quarters in terms of financial objectives (line goes up and to the right), and measure financial objectives in terms of profit. Anyone that’s tried training up a new grad realises that they probably will suck for the first 6 months, they probably won’t produce anything of value for a year, but that it’s a necessary investment in the next generation of SE2 and Senior Engineers (that’s if they don’t jump ship to a competitor, but I digress).

This is such an important issue that we’re now having 49 year olds be the youngest employees at the powerplant they work at.