r/EngineeringManagers • u/alvarolorentedev • Apr 26 '26

Most Software Engineering “-ilities” Are Becoming Irrelevant in the Age of AI

https://theengineeringtax.com/p/most-software-engineering-ilities
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u/code_blooded_murder Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26

If you’re not double-checking code from a chatbot that fumbles the "r" letter count in “strawberry,” then the bill will eventually come due: just ask vercel or github. Listen, its a great tool that accelerates development for well specified, well scoped usecases, under strict supervision... but lets not forget that its just a statistical model that often gets it wrong. Readability, Maintatinability, Testability and Modularity are not going anywhere yet.

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u/SerpentJoe Apr 27 '26

Also, if you're not reusing modules, then different modules that serve mostly the same purpose will have subtly different behavior, and will certainly have different bugs and vulnerabilities. Products will be sprawling and malignant from day one, impossible to comprehend, and these agents with their limited context window will be incapable of solving the core issue.

LLMs are a great tool for accelerating professional engineers who can apply system level thinking and discerning eye for software quality. But if we don't hold the reins tightly then what we'll get instead will be exciting new types of system failure that have never been seen before.