The Story

The Question

40% of code is now written by LLMs. That number is growing.

I was using Claude Code, watching it generate TypeScript. A thought hit me:

Why is Claude writing code that I'm supposed to read?

I wasn't going to read it line-by-line. I'd skim it, run the tests. So why make AI write in a format optimized for human readers who aren't reading?

The Stack

1950s: Machine code
1960s: Assembly
1970s: C
1980s: C++
1990s: Java, Python
2000s: Frameworks
2020s: AI writes, humans review

Each step made it easier for humans to express intent. But now AI is the primary author. AI doesn't need public static void main.

The Insight

LLMs tokenize English words efficiently. Symbols like {, }, === fragment into multiple tokens. Words like "plus", "minus", "if" are single tokens.

So instead of cryptic compression, use dense English.

The Design

NERD = No Effort Required, Done

• Not human-friendly: dense, terse, machine-optimized
• Human-observable: auditable, verifiable
• 50-70% fewer tokens: same logic, less cost
• Native compilation: LLVM, no runtime

The Result

fn add a b
ret a plus b

fn calc a b op
if op eq zero ret ok a plus b
if op eq one ret ok a minus b
ret err "unknown"

67% fewer tokens than TypeScript. Same functionality.

The Workflow

Human: "Add rate limiting"
  |
LLM writes NERD
  |
Compiles to native
  |
Human observes (read-only)
  |
Human: "Make it 100 req/min"
  |
LLM modifies NERD

Humans are stakeholders, not authors.

The Objections

"But I need to debug!"

Do you debug JVM bytecode? V8's internals? No. You debug at your abstraction layer. If that layer is natural language, debugging becomes: "Hey Claude, the login is failing for users with + in their email."

"Compliance requires readable code!"

Auditable != authored by humans. A translated view can show data flow, constraints, security measures, in plain English. More auditable than 2am spaghetti code.

The Bet

In five years, most production code won't be human-written. When that happens, TypeScript will feel like asking Claude to write in Latin.

NERD is what source code becomes when humans stop pretending they need to write it.

The Disclaimer

This could be wrong. Maybe humans will always want to edit code directly. Maybe 40% plateaus. NERD is an experiment: a bootstrap compiler in C, compiling to LLVM IR, no dependencies.

If the answer is interesting, great. If not, it was worth exploring.