this post was submitted on 14 May 2026
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When you start relying on something else, it's quite natural and expected to no longer be good at the thing now being done for you.
But in this context, it's a net negative. While you can certainly write more code while using the tool, you're almost always writing worse code. And you still get the atrophy, so the result overall: now you're not good at the thing, and neither is the tool you're using.
And remember, AI models need constant retraining as systems and approaches are updated, languages change, etc. Where is that training data going to come from? From the people now worse at coding than they were before.
The atrophy scares the hell out of me.
Years ago, I would often have long conversations with my dad about how manual skill sets in the trades (my training) and in engineering in the field (which was his bailiwick) were being lost to the pivot towards college degrees for every student, including the ones that preferred to work with their hands.
Three decades on, I witnessed the full turn when construction firms had to - and still have to - mass import workers from Central and South America (legally and illegally) just to get things built. NGL, there are some scary good builders that have been brought in, and those people work insanely hard.
Yes, it's slowly pivoting back as more boys and men opt for the trades and become journeymen and apprentices, but to get the skillsets needed to get to a master's level, you're looking at at least 20k hours. Wer're still a decade out - at best - before we get enough kids through the system and into steady work that they can step up and strike out on their own and make crazy bank. Skilled craftsmen and women can earn 100 bucks an hour - easily - in the right markets, and the rich folks will be glad to pay.
Goddamn, it's gonna be scary until that sorts itself out in another decade or so (and that does pin itself on the hope the financially feckless idiot in the White House doesn't torpedo the economy..)