Managed Delusion

While “The Copilot Delusion” raises legitimate concerns about overreliance and careless use of AI coding tools, it underestimates the benefits of productivity, learning, and innovation that Copilot offers when used thoughtfully and in conjunction with human expertise and robust development practices. 

Having worked closely with a few different developers for the last couple of years, I have seen an evolution in their views of what coding agents can and cannot do for them. Many are coming to accept the inevitability of their employers forcing adopting in pursuit of productivity gains. Others are holding out convinced this is a fad and there is no way for it to end without an implosion of code-slop that will need humans just like them to come clean up. They are confident that their best years are ahead of them when they can demand top dollar to clean up after the AI. 

The truth is probably somewhere in between. Jumping all-in, caution thrown to the winds is just as unwise as sitting things out stubbornly waiting for the bubble to burst. It will be critical to have strong foundation skills and education (now more than ever), be a thoughtful user and consumer of the services the coding agents provide, keep those coding skills sharp and start to level up, become creative and strategic in thinking. As the author points out:

Software is not just lines of code strung together; it is the sum of decisions, tradeoffs, and understanding that accumulate over time,

The ability to make those decisions and tradeoffs better and smarter is probably the best use f the developer's time. That will allow them to be in full-control of the agent and not the other way around.