AI Hasn't Eliminated Deep Technical Understanding, It Has Made It Rare

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A software developer recounts initially resenting AI tools, feeling that the hard-won understanding gained from years of debugging had suddenly been devalued. Advice from a mentor, comparing AI to an automatic gearbox, reframed the situation for the author. The core argument is that AI makes deep skill optional rather than worthless, so fewer people acquire it even as its value grows. The author warns that AI-generated code can look correct while hiding errors that only someone familiar with the underlying system can catch. The author concludes that the ability to recognize when AI is wrong is becoming the scarcest and most valuable part of engineering work.

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