How engineers may grow when AI tools write the first draft of code

The author argues that AI coding tools now produce most first drafts of small programming tasks, removing the incremental ladder through which engineers traditionally learned the craft. Lessons once gained from routine fixes, such as code organization, review, testing, and shipping, must now be arranged deliberately by managers. Judgment, such as spotting wrong interpretations, duplication, or performance problems, is seen as developing through reading more code than one writes and learning from public mistakes. The author suggests designing growth paths around more reading, review, and explaining, and perhaps keeping some tool-free work early on. The author admits uncertainty about how long any by-hand period should last and whether newer engineers will develop comparable judgment.