AI made code cheap, not engineering: why judgment matters more than ever
_jaydeepkarale · x · 2026-09-04
AI made writing code cheaper, but it didn't make engineering cheaper. When code generation is cheap, the expensive part shifts to understanding the problem, judging which requirements matter, spotting dangerous trade-offs, designing for failure, and knowing when a simple solution beats a clever one. AI can hand you five implementations but won't tell you which to trust in production — you still need enough understanding to catch confident bad answers. The future belongs to engineers who decide what deserves to be built, not those who type fastest.
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