Learn Python. ⠀
Learn JavaScript. ⠀
Learn React. ⠀
Learn Docker. ⠀
Learn AWS. ⠀
Learn Kubernetes. ⠀
Finally, you start feeling confident. ⠀
Then someone says, “I built the whole app with a prompt.” ⠀
Welcome to being a developer. ⠀
After 16+ years in engineering, I understand why this feels exhausting.
Every time you get comfortable, the industry gives you more homework. ⠀
But I’d redraw the last part of this curve. ⠀
Your engineering knowledge still matters when you have to explain why: ⠀
• The app works locally but fails in production. ⠀
• One database query takes down the API. ⠀
• A retry charges the customer twice. ⠀
• An AI-generated endpoint lets users access someone else’s data. ⠀
Knowing how to investigate those problems takes experience.
Every layer you learned gives you somewhere to start. ⠀
That knowledge helps while you’re prompting, too. ⠀
You can spot a missing requirement, question a design choice, and catch a dangerous assumption before it spreads across twenty files. ⠀
I want AI to handle more of the repetitive work.
I also want to understand what I’m putting into production. ⠀
If you’re feeling behind, try this: ⠀
Take one small feature you already know how to build.
Ask an AI coding tool to implement it.
Then review the result like a teammate’s pull request.
⠀
1. Read the diff. ⠀
2. Check the dependencies. ⠀
3. Test the failure cases. ⠀
4. Find something you would change and explain why. ⠀
You’ll learn the tool while exercising the judgment you’ve spent years developing. ⠀
And if you’re just starting, follow the generated code all the way through: from the button, to the API, to the database, and back. ⠀
You don’t have to restart your career every time the tools change. ⠀
You do have to keep learning.
That part of the picture has always been accurate. ⠀
Which skill on this chart took you the longest to learn?
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