Don't Outsource Knowledge
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We are living through the most significant shift in the history of software engineering. For decades, the job was simple in concept: a human provided specific instructions to a computer through code. Today, that paradigm has completely inverted. We now ask computers to write the instructions to tell the computers what to do.
AI is not a passing trend or a temporary hype cycle. It’s a fundamental evolution in how software is built, and adopting it is no longer optional, it’s a requirement for anyone who wants to stay relevant. However, the key to navigating this shift isn’t just using AI; it’s using it smartly.
The biggest trap I see developers fall into is outsourcing their own learning to the model. When you encounter a concept you don’t understand, the temptation is to have an LLM solve it for you instantly. Resist that. When you use AI to bypass the “struggle” of learning, you are robbing yourself of the mental models required to be a high-level engineer. You are essentially trading your long-term expertise for a short-term speed boost.
The rule should be simple: Never outsource your learning; only outsource your labor.
AI is a tool for moving faster once you have already understood the underlying principles. You should delegate tasks that you already know how to do to the AI. Once you understand how a specific framework works, how a certain algorithm is structured, or how a piece of infrastructure should be configured, let the AI handle the boilerplate. This is how you gain a 10x speed advantage without losing knowledge.
If you don’t understand how the code works, you can’t truly own it. You can’t debug it when the AI hallucinates, and you can’t optimize it when the requirements change. Use the AI to eliminate the tedious, repetitive parts of the job, but do the hard work of learning on your own first.
I’m now convinced that AI has changed coding forever and it will make us exponentially more productive. But remember that the computer is writing the instructions now your job is to be the one who knows exactly what those instructions are supposed to do.
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